St. John is the capital city of Canada’s Newfoundland and Labrador province. Resembling something of a Norwegian/Swedish archipelago town, it is the home of Artach. The city is, according to the band “one of foggiest, snowiest, wettest, windiest and gloomiest” cities in Canada, which makes it a perfect black metal breeding ground. One of the interesting and refreshing aspects of the band is their name and the member’s stage names. They are in Gaelic, as the band preferred to look at the historical roots of the area they live in, which consisted of English, Irish and Scottish settling communities, rather than re-tread the Norse and Scandinavian themes.
The album addresses various aspects of natures interactions with the dark, destructive tendencies of humankind. However do not be fooled, this is no mournful walk through desolated landscapes to melancholic synthesisers and doom riffs. Sworn To Avenge is an angry and unhinged call to arms that would have Treebeard’s Ents up in arms, ready to destroy hundreds more Orthanc towers. With meaty rhythm riffs sounding very reminiscent of Venom and Celtic Frost, combined with the melodic sounds of the NWOBHM and Bathory it most definitely stands up to its black metal tag. There is also a Darkthrone-esque duality to their music, making it a unique fusion between the first and second waves of black metal, as the band have a true appreciation for all things grim, gloomy and frostbitten. The rough edge to the compositions only adds to the intensity of the subject matter. There are more little twists in this album that the Paris Catacombs, you find a new route through the album with each listen through. This is only accentuated by the album’s production, a modern professionalism yet is raw and nostalgia inducing, as it takes inspiration from the artists mentioned above.
Artach have become a creative force since spawning out of the cold, dark landscapes of Canada in 2019. The album is packed with well thought out and constructed riffs and melodies, you can hear where the music comes from regarding it’s influences but the band have moulded it into their own unique sound. The album’s dynamic diversity keeps the listener on their toes as the song structures very much follow the unconventional style of the second wave of black metal. While the rest of the album is overflowing with thrashing aggression ‘Ice Throne’ being a stand out with its epic melody and thunderous rhythms. Accompanied by the doom sensibilities of ‘Into the Frozen Woodlands’ and album closer ‘Winters End’. The one anomaly is the 21 minute internal mini-album ‘Endless Tundra’, which separates the first and second half of the album. The song itself is more like a conceptual EP within an album, whilst there is enough variation to keep it entertaining, it doesn’t really fit with the rest of the album and could have potentially been a stand alone release as it explores the failed Franklin Expedition in 1846. However, it stunts the album’s momentum a little, before ‘Into the Frozen Woodlands’ regains it. Even so, the monumental amount of creativity to compose such a song is quite remarkable, as each section is more like an orchestral movement.
Artach are one of the most interesting black metal bands to have come out of Canada in recent years. The unique meshing of first and second wave black metal styles alongside elements of progressive black metal creates an interesting and intriguing album. The band’s enjoyment for creating and love for their craft really shines through, it is refreshingly authentic and invigorating, daring to explore things in their own way instead of adding more footprints to an already well trodden black metal path.