Darkestrah - The Great Silk Road

Soup wrote this:

Since I just posted a review of a Velvet Cacoon album, I figured I should review something on the exact opposite end of the black metal spectrum. Unlike the drugged-out droning of Velvet Cacoon, this band plays fast, melodic black metal with a strong folk-ish slant.

Darkestrah, proud owners of one of the most hilariously awful band names ever (sorry, but I simply can't let that one slide), are a black metal band hailing from, of all places, Kyrgyzstan, and currently based out of Germany.

Despite the really weak band name, this band plays some of the best pagan black metal I've heard in a long time. The band combines a black metal sound with the use of a number of highly uncommon folk instruments and techniques (especially for black metal) including the kyl-kyjak (a type of fiddle), the temir komuz (also known as a Jew's harp), and the use of sygyt (a style of throat singing), among others.

And speaking of things that are unusual in black metal bands, this is one of the rare female-fronted black metal bands. The singer, going by the name of Kriegtalith holds her own with the best metal vocalists out there. There is nothing for people who like fake metal bands with whiny mallgoth girls fronting them (you know who I'm talking about) here, and for that, I am incredibly thankful. Honestly, she sounds more or less androgynous to me. I wouldn't have even known if I hadn't been told. The point is, she makes Dani Filth sound like a eunuch.

Of course, all of that wouldn't mean much of anything if the music was bad, and the unusual elements sounded cheesy and tacked on, but the standard guitars, drums, bass, and vocals are all here, and there is lots of suitably brutal drumming and awesome enough riffs and melodies to silence all doubters, and the folk instruments are not only well-integrated into the band's arrangements (along with a number of other instruments that unfortunately were unnamed in the press kit), but they're also an essential melodic part of them. This is a well-composed black metal album that will not only satisfy the hordes that are already out there, but might even be tolerable to people who've never listened to a black metal album in their life.

More information can be found at their official website.