Kankar unveils Dunkle Millenia, its first album.
After an EP in 2018, the german band created by Stríð (vocals/guitar/bass) and Plágan (drums) is ready to show us the strength of its music again.
The duo delivers an Atmospheric Black Metal with raw sound, abrasive screams and intense blackness that permanently haunts their riffs. With its eleven songs, Dunkle Millenia offers ice-cold harmonics and dark melodies, like on Gier, the first song, but also a sharp and unhealthy sound like on the massive and dissonant Krater in Sarx, or the long and haunting Zerfall des Lichts. The sound is impressive and full of shrilling sonorities, raging leads, but also vocals that draw influences in pure feeling, like on Vergeltung. The composition is as catchy, as Thüringer Schwarzmetall is cold, letting us nod while enjoying riffs. We find this warlike ambience anchored in Pagan Black with Der Schütze and its introductive sample, while epic sonorities guide N.E.I.D. and its mad harmonics. Festmahl für die Krähen also brings some Folk hints with ice-cold and seizing riffs, mainly thanks to those mystical clean-sounding vocals, quickly followed by mad harmonics, then Pilgerreise mesmerizes us with its soaring clean introduction. Riffs keep us into this screed of darkness before Die Sonne über Ikarus, a catchy song of which climax is reached with the far clean vocals on chorus. Dunkle Millennia, the eponymous track, comes last, offering a clever melting of cold riffs and soaring sounds to close the album.
I discovered Kankar with this album, and I regret I never heard about them before. Dunkle Millennia is a cold and direct album, but also a soaring and mystical one, that doesn’t hesitate to offer warlike tones, mad harmonics and as raw as catchy vocals.
90/100