A three-man outfit with members split between New Zealand and Scotland, Barshasketh plough a narrow furrow of stripped-down, melancholic black metal that’s a mix of Mayhemic rumblings and bleak, burning melodies. Harsh yet oddly clean, the production has a paradoxically polished rawness to it, allowing the simple tremolo riffs that lead the songs to stand out sharply. It’s an emotionally powerful, grindingly sorrowful sound that reminded me instantly of an anomalous gem from Anaal Nathrakh’s demo days by the name of ‘Satanarchist’, in which their rabid Mayhem worship is tempered with a much more tender, melodic feel.
The songs on ‘Sitra Achra’ have that same delicate, winding urgency to them, full of endlessly repetitive, tail-chasing tremolo riffs and ceaselessly clattering drums. There is plenty of energy and force to the songs, but they still tend towards the subdued, the narrow, blazing sections spinning off into depressive, mid-paced marches and dazed meanders. Whilst not particularly long at six or seven minutes, the songs have an epic and drawn-out quality to them on account of their minimalism, and there’s just a hint of the Ukrainian BM sound creeping in in places, adding a churning, windswept stoicism to the classic Nordic blasting. The rasped vocals meanwhile do the job without intruding, complementing the texture of the riffs nicely.
The songs certainly flow well, progressing smoothly from rattling barrages to mournful, doomy laments. Every once in a while a towering, crunchy heavy metal riff will appear from nowhere and start stomping about, sounding a bit out of place and “It’s my turn now, Jurgen”, but great fun precisely because of that. I’d be lying if I said that there was anything really new to be found on the album, but it’s chock-full of rousing moments and there’s an undeniable passion burning away at its heart. Some would no doubt argue that it’s too overproduced for an album with such a raw aesthetic, but it works for me. The physical CD itself seems a bit cheaply manufactured mind, but that’s probably my biggest complaint, and that ain’t bad. ‘Sitra Achra’ is depressive yet dynamic; full of piercing tremolos and somber half-time plunges. A delightfully chaotic dirge.
(8/10 Erich Zann)
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