I can remember the old days when we used to discuss is something was hard rock or heavy metal, but now the music we all love has become so diverse that even sub genres have sub genres to describe what it is that we listen to. One of my personal favourites is progressive technical death metal, and there can be few who do it as well as Arkaik. This is their fourth full length for Unique Leader and is probably their most ambitious studio album to date. It was produced, engineered, and mixed by Zack Ohren (Immolation, Fallujah, Suffocation, Decrepit Birth et al.), and features guest appearances by Joe Haley of Psycroptic, Arde Ostowari formerly of Burning The Masses, Stephen Paulson of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, and former Arkaik guitarist Craig Peters, as well as Gabe Seeber from The Kennedy Veil and Decrepit Birth (live) performing drums for the entire album. The cover art and booklet was designed by visionary artist Tyler Space, who worked with the band on their previous release, ‘Lucid Dawn’.
They created a series of wildly psychedelic concept albums revolving around a protagonist named Cyrix, a disillusioned character in a dystopian society. Cyrix’ latest journey introduces new characters and brings you into a world of dark occultists, magical allies, and hidden forces. From resurrecting ancient goddesses to cracking the codes of reality and activating hyper dimensional stargates, the chronicle of Cyrix continues.
Said founding vocalist Jared Christianson of the record’s concept, “This album fully sets the stage and builds on the story we started developing two albums ago with Cyrix and ‘Metamorphignition’. We've begun weaving together our own mythos of synchronicity and symbolism to encapsulate and distil the journey of the alchemist through the gnostic dream. It attempts to reveal through storytelling and allegory that we can experience real freedom and discover the inner treasures that guide us to who, what, and where we want to be, if we are willing to pull back the veil of lies blinding us from the truth of our nature. If I could sum up everything we've done so far, my personal journey and our message as a band in three words it would be the lyric ‘pain to power’ from the song “Telegnosis”. To me, it's about transmuting your struggles into strengths and refining your personal power and will. I really enjoyed making this album and hope people dig it!"
Massively over the top in every sense, this is essential to anyone into this particular sub-genre as it rarely gets any better than this.
