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Dahakara - Low Of Wisdom review




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Reviewer:
8.0

3 users:
8.33
Band: Dahakara
Album: Low Of Wisdom
Release date: February 2015


01. Empyrean
02. Augmented Vacancy
03. Gaze Along
04. Great Attractor
05. Black Dwarf
06. Majoris
07. Observables
08. Plaque Found
09. Moment Of Inertia
10. Voids

Istanbul, Turkey has long been one of the world's crossroads, where polar opposites seem to meet up and form interesting fusions that result in entirely new products. Europeans meet Asians and Africans. Christians meet Muslims. The East meets the West in general. Or, if we're speaking from a musical perspective, rather than cultural, in the case of Dahakara we could take Istanbul as a crossroads where black metal meets up with ambient music.

Wait just a moment now. Where black metal meets up with ambient music? "Hasn't that been done plenty of times already?" you ask. What's so new about it? Well, in the case of Dahakara, an obscure little one man BM band coming straight out of Asia Minor, it's the particular way in which this fusion is applied that really makes the music stick out. Low Of Wisdom, the sophomore effort from this project, is certainly not your typical ambient black metal album. This isn't like Leviathan or Darkspace where you're going to hear ravenous black metal tear away at your flesh, get short little ambient breaks from the carnage, and then return to the black metal, in a formula that's become pretty standard for the style. Rather... something a little more peculiar occurs.

On Low Of Wisdom, curiously enough, the ambient music and the black metal are much more divided, and really don't combine themselves except on "Gaze Along" and "Majoris." Other than that, you really either get a fully black metal track, or a fully ambient track, and that's it. The black metal has a rather bright, airy, midtempo, and pretty relaxing atmosphere about it, virtually the antithesis of the style employed on the Evil Of All Decades debut, which was overall darker and more smothering. The ambient music, meanwhile, is mostly driven by synths and electronics ("Observables," especially), but occasionally some very interesting folk-type percussive elements creep into the mix, as on "Moment Of Inertia." Overall, however, the music leans much more towards the ambient than to the black metal, making it seem as if the former is the sound that the eponymous Dahakara prefers to explore, which would explain the fully ambient album that he released this year shortly after Low Of Wisdom.

This technique, the "black metal, you stay over here, ambient music, you go over there" approach, may frustrate some listeners looking for a more seamless fusion of the two. I, however, found it to be extremely interesting. Because unlike the large majority of ambient BM bands who intersperse the two, thereby making it occasionally difficult to discern them from one another, on Low Of Wisdom Dahakara divides these two styles in a strange way that almost makes them seem to be at odds with each other. Yet the way the black metal is employed, in this warm and atmospheric nature, makes the transitions into the purely ambient tracks feel completely natural. Even so, if the two aren't intermingling with each other, as is typical of so many other bands in the style, can this music really be called "ambient black metal" then? It could be. It couldn't be. But that's just part of the beauty behind the mystery.

And that mystery beckons.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 8
Songwriting: 8
Originality: 9
Production: 8





Written on 08.11.2015 by Metal Storm’s own Babalao. Comforting the disturbed and disturbing the comfortable since 2013.


Comments

Comments: 9   Visited by: 190 users
08.11.2015 - 20:13
Bad English
Tage Westerlund
Nice job man
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08.11.2015 - 22:17
Auntie Sahar
Drone Empress
Written by Bad English on 08.11.2015 at 20:13

Nice job man

Thanks. Can't say I can really see this as being the type of album you'd enjoy though... or am I wrong?
----
I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go.

~ II. VII
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08.11.2015 - 22:19
Bad English
Tage Westerlund
Written by Auntie Sahar on 08.11.2015 at 22:17

Written by Bad English on 08.11.2015 at 20:13

Nice job man

Thanks. Can't say I can really see this as being the type of album you'd enjoy though... or am I wrong?


if I be more free time I might, but I like read new reviews and your, you have a talent make me interested
----
Life is to short for LOVE, there is many great things to do online !!!

Stormtroopers of Death - ''Speak English or Die''
apos;'
[image]
I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
Loading...
08.11.2015 - 22:21
Auntie Sahar
Drone Empress
Written by Bad English on 08.11.2015 at 22:19

if I be more free time I might, but I like read new reviews and your, you have a talent make me interested

Cool man, feel free to let me know what you think if you get to it
----
I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go.

~ II. VII
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09.11.2015 - 01:40
mz

Seems like this album is exactly what I don't like to happen in fusion styles like ambient BM. I like it when ambient music and BM mix uniformly, as I am sure that there are bands doing much better ambient music, and some other doing better BM.
----
Giving my ears a rest from music.
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09.11.2015 - 01:52
Auntie Sahar
Drone Empress
Written by mz on 09.11.2015 at 01:40

Seems like this album is exactly what I don't like to happen in fusion styles like ambient BM. I like it when ambient music and BM mix uniformly, as I am sure that there are bands doing much better ambient music, and some other doing better BM.

I figured I'd be one of the few people around here who does enjoy it for that reason
I dunno, I just liked that approach because it is considerably different, so I appreciate the originality, and as I said, the BM is played in a way that feels like a natural complement to the ambient music, even if the ambient kinda takes precedence here. My only real complaint is that the BM really only appears in the first half of the album, and then the ambient tracks really dominate the second half. I don't mind that those styles aren't fused together in individual tracks, but that arrangement almost makes it feel like this release is really two albums in one or something... it's quite strange in that regard

Bands doing better black metal? Very likely true. Better ambient music though.... that's debatable. I think this guy has a pretty good handle on his shit as far as that's concerned. I'd highly suggest you listen to Relativist, the latest album that's ALL ambient. I think you'll enjoy it
----
I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go.

~ II. VII
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09.11.2015 - 22:01
mz

Written by Auntie Sahar on 09.11.2015 at 01:52


I figured I'd be one of the few people around here who does enjoy it for that reason
I dunno, I just liked that approach because it is considerably different, so I appreciate the originality, and as I said, the BM is played in a way that feels like a natural complement to the ambient music, even if the ambient kinda takes precedence here. My only real complaint is that the BM really only appears in the first half of the album, and then the ambient tracks really dominate the second half. I don't mind that those styles aren't fused together in individual tracks, but that arrangement almost makes it feel like this release is really two albums in one or something... it's quite strange in that regard

Bands doing better black metal? Very likely true. Better ambient music though.... that's debatable. I think this guy has a pretty good handle on his shit as far as that's concerned. I'd highly suggest you listen to Relativist, the latest album that's ALL ambient. I think you'll enjoy it


Thanks for the suggestion.
It is just my personal preference of wanting a well blended combination of genres in cases like this.
I'd check the album you mentioned to see what comes out of it.
----
Giving my ears a rest from music.
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06.12.2015 - 21:33
Netzach
Planewalker
One of the best-written reviews in a while here, I think. I get the idea that the BM and ambiance are separated in the same way as the drone and "black-americana" on Horseback's Half Blood.

Should give this a listen.
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06.12.2015 - 22:59
Auntie Sahar
Drone Empress
Written by Netzach on 06.12.2015 at 21:33

I get the idea that the BM and ambiance are separated in the same way as the drone and "black-americana" on Horseback's Half Blood.

Good comparison that I didn't even think of. It is indeed very much like that album in that respect
----
I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go.

~ II. VII
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