Olkoth – The Immortal Depths & Treasures of Necromancy

Band: Olkoth
Title: The Immortal Depths & Treasures of Necromancy
Label: Signal Rex
Release date: 01 August 2019
Country: USA
Format reviewed: Digital Promo

Oh black metal. Is there really anything better than indulging in it? I think not.

The years 2016 and 2017 were active ones for the USA based Olkoth as the two demos of “The Immortal Depths” and “Treasures of Necromancy” were introduced to the public, and this year on the 1st of August they decided to combine the two into a compilation record. I get to review two things this week! Fun!

As it was released first, “The Immortal Depths” is the first part of the compilation. Being only three tracks I was still quite entertained even for a short while. “Shrine of Rotten Bones” has its own eerie-ness with choirs and disturbing guitar melody with ghastly shrieks before turning into full frontal black metal. The beauty shone through which was surprising, as judging from the name I was expecting gory death metal but atmosphere and melancholy are the main structures here.

“Ancient Black Flame” as a closing track of the demo didn’t have the common stuff in this genre and reminded me of Ghost in a black-metal outfit. The chorus effect on the guitar, the melodies, the old school drumming with the type of keyboards they go with got me all worked up.

On to the second part; “Treasures of Necromancy” released in 2017.

Ice-bell chimes over an eerie riff of “The Ghoulish Grail pt. 1” continues the previous excitement that had been built up. The ghostly demonic black metal screams of “Treasures of Necromancy” assures the listener that OLKOTH does the black metal parts justice along with added extra genres such as post-rock. And of course “The Ghoulish Grail pt. 2″ isn’t missing, at least not entirely although it is very short and fades out quite quickly.

Although it sort of feels like the production isn’t the best, “Paranormal Enslavement” does continue what “Treasures of Necromancy” started with. Interesting, almost gigantic chords come in at times as if someone outside the room was ringing a doorbell, extremely anxious to get in which adds a certain mystique to the track. I do wonder who is at the door.

Closing the compilation with “Demonic Prophecy” and the traditional multi-layered black metal I can’t help but feel the growing need to hearing more from this band. I do hope they are in the studio right now, inserting an even bigger doorbell to really catch that background sound.

Making a compilation record of this sort from two previous demos is a good way to reissue the previous work I suppose. However, listening to it is simply just like listening to two different records. The clear split between the two demos is obvious as I personally felt like “The Immortal Depths” got me more into an exciting state than “Treasures of Necromancy” did. But overall I believe I can recommend both parts to a friend.

The Immortal Depths – 8/10
Treasures of Necromancy – 7/10

By Julia

 

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