Band:	Nechochwen
Album:	Heart Of Akamon
Style:	Neofolk, Black metal
Release date:	September 04, 2015
Guest review by:	Marcus

01. The Serpent Tradition
02. The Impending Winter
03. Lost On The Trail Of The Setting Sun [feat. Tanner]
04. October 6, 1813
05. Traversing The Shades Of Death
06. ?kimota
07. Skyhook
08. Ki?elamakong

Far too often folk elements injected into metal act as a gimmick, tying the listener to cultures and ages long since dead with instruments and passages that are, at best, skin-deep. Enter Nechochwen, champion of the American Indian in music and spirit. For whatever unknown reason, the history and existence of America's indigenous peoples have been largely ignored in metal, with few exceptions like Panopticon, Yaotl Mictlan or the bands of the Black Twilight Circle.
Nechochwen's discography, to this point, can be considered a sort of saga tracing the experience of Native Americans with the coming of Europeans. Algonkian Mythos is devoid of any metal elements, focusing solely on acoustic and folk instruments - an American era before Europeans arrived. Azimuths To The Otherworld began a crude, chaotic blend of the Old (acoustic folk) and New (black metal) Worlds - a warring clash of cultures alien to one another. Heart Of Akamon represents a more perfect union, a natural joinder between elements - peace at the expense of the native.
Following the trend set in Azimuths? the folk and acoustic elements are diminished. While they are no longer at the forefront of the music, neither are they forgotten or used merely as a parlor trick for attention or to stand out. Folk instruments like flutes and rattles are used as naturally as guitars and drums; folk sections flow so smoothly throughout the album it is as if they were meant to mix with metal. Although a boon, the genre mixture is also damaging. Nechochwen perform and compose their best when using acoustic and folk instruments; the music is far more interesting, diverse and memorable. The problem is that the metal passages and influences take away from the folk - they build beautiful acoustic atmospheres that are substantially weakened when black metal is introduced. Nechochwen must improve at metal before one of their albums will be truly great.
Heart Of Akamon, in many ways, sounds like a death knell for the Native American. The songs are somber, particularly when compared to Algonkian Mythos, the lyrics cry for the death of Tecumseh, and the songs lament the scattering and fading of the great tribes. But all is not lost. The album's closer Kiselamakong, while evoking a sense of loss, preaches hope, remembrance and that there is a future in which the lost peoples of America will find themselves honored and their ways reborn. Tecumseh may be dead, the great tribes now scattered, but the Heart Of Akamon lives on.