Vehemency The few snippets I’ve heard of Dark Tribe’s previous effort from 2004 (In Jeraspunta...) provided somewhat different sound what the band offers now on their third full-length, Archaic Visions, that has been under work for the last six years. While the second album provided a massive wall of chaotic music with some absurdly weird clean vocals, Archaic Visions seems more stripped down, organic and, well, normal black metal.

Without going further into assumptions what led to this slight change in direction, I can still assure that Archaic Visions is maniacal in its own way. There is something magical in these simple atonal melodies and riffs fired with dominant role in the production - indeed, the guitars are in main role, backed by barbaric drumming. Vocals are plain weird high-pitched screeches and mutterings, fitting to the overall unique atmosphere of Archaic Visions well. At times, for example during ”The Wrath of Our Tribe" and ”I See the Coldness in My Eyes”, I’m reminded of the furiosity of Vordr, and at times the album delves in a lot more wistful, mid-tempo wanderings.

It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed an album that really sends chills down my spine and, ladies and gentlemen, here is an album that manages to rise to such enthralling levels of beauty: the sudden melodies full of sorrow on ”Suicide Is the Light” are responsible for it the most but I wouldn’t underestimate the power of e.g. ”Children of Forgotten Times” and ”Desperation” either. By the way, if you are confused by the song titles leaning on suicidal themes, don’t expect any generic Hypothermia clone here, this is far from deserving the DSBM tag. I would categorize this as desperate, demented and archaic black metal, or something along those lines.

There’s some compositional stagnation on the latter half of Archaic Visions - e.g. ”Praying for Salvation” follows the previous tracks’ pattern a tad too closely and ”Endless War” could do better with a shorter running time - but the album still ventures enough deftly to the very end - after all, the insanity captured onto the record is always interesting to hear even if every moment isn’t made of pure gold. If not the best album of the year, close to the top releases anyhow.