Akashah /The Dance Of Beltaine Fire/2009/CD Review

 Akashah are a band from the mid western region of Vinland that has been interviewed in my zine who I would describe as atmospheric pagan/black metal and this is a review of their new album "The Dance Of Beltaine Fire".

Drums cover some variety with some slow parts that turn into really brutal blast beats at times that sound very raw and has the classic 90's demo black metal feel, while the bass playing has a very low pitched tone that has a pagan approach to playing that I have not heard since the early polish black metal days.

Rhythm guitars use a lot of different types of riffs with some palm muted parts that have a very classic metal feel with a slight death metal influence and at a lot of times throughout the album they turn into some very fast raw black metal riffs mixed with some slower parts that have an acoustic feel without using an acoustic guitar, as for the leads they are very melodic and medieval sounding mixing elements of 70's metal mixed with underground European pagan metal that sound more professional than bands of that style.

Vocals are mostly high pitched black metal screams with some low pitched death metal growls as well as some clean pagan singing, while the lyrics cover a variety of topics from Celtic/paganism/shamanism mixed in with some Norse type lyrics that are very well written and studied, while some pagan metal bands usually just do it for image, which you would realize when you this band is very real about it, there are also some werewolf and vampiric themes used in some songs that are very common in European folklore.


Synths when they are utilized on some songs have a very haunting, organic and epic dark ambient sound with some samples from some movies or documentaries, while the keyboards when they are utilized has a very medieval/classical music feel, as for the production on this recording sounds very professional and you can hear all of the instruments and melodies very well.


In my opinion this is a really good album and proof that Americans can do pagan metal as well as their European counterparts and I also should mention this band has a lot more talent than some of the modern stuff that I have heard from overseas in the last couple of years, remember a majority of Americans have European blood and they can still worship the pagan gods, despite what the ignorant and stupid say, I look forward to hearing some more material from this band in the future. I feel this band will make U.S a serious impact for  pagan black metal like Judas Iscariot, Leviathan did for U.S black metal.

Recommended tracks are "Gwwyn ap Nudd""Hanged Man's Vision" and "Black Sunrise". RECOMMENDED BUY

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