Review: In Dakhma - He Who Sows The Ground
In Dakhma - He Who Sows The Ground
Tower Of Silence Records
Release Date: November 8th, 2024
In Dakhma are a new band. Ok, they formed in 2022, but this Croatian duo have spent the past couple of years working on this, their debut album.
And I have to confess, this is my second time of writing this review. In my first attempt, my argument was that the album lacked a little in direction, with In Dakhma being promoted as a Death Metal band, I didn’t think they followed the brief.
But I’ve scrapped that idea now. The album has grown on me enormously. I liked it from the off, but it’s finally clicked with me. And I’m ok with the band floating off in a different direction now and then.
The rest of this review are my initial thoughts as I ended up going through the album track by track:
The opener, Ona Kraljuje Sama, is Death Metal meets Thrash with some frantic solos and is a superb way to kick things off. Same again for Sacrum… it lets rip from the off and would start a pit at practically any gig. So far so good.
In Dogma, once again, begins at 1000 mph and veers further into Thrash territory, with a Hardcore gangshout chorus that hits the mark. Nothing But Filth slows things right down. It’s Death Metal with an underlying bouncy feel a la Sepultura/Soulfly. And then we hit the Funeral Doom of Sentinel Hill. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a wonderfully haunting slab of Doom with some terrific lead guitar work. It just sounds like a completely different band.
Moving on to track six, Aeshma feels a bit lost on the album. It’s mid-paced and doesn’t really go anywhere until about 60% in.
It seems like I’m going through everything song by song, so I’ll continue.
Black Mat is just over a minute long and despite some very nice guitar work, my World has not been set alight. That job goes to Siblicide, my favourite song on the album, by an absolute mile. Again, it’s another fast paced dandruff shaker, with the guitar work sitting somewhere between Black and Death Metal. It’s also the best vocal performance from Vedran Nor (he also handles bass and guitar duties). It’s also the best interaction with drummer Matko Podobnik, as they really hit the sweet spot with this one.
Then, it’s time for Lies Beneath the Golden Ruins, which is decent enough, but it doesn’t excite me like Siblicide
We then move onto the penultimate number, which is represented by 3 dots (…) It’s more an acoustic interlude that a full song and is a very pleasant listening experience.
So that just leaves the finale, Tower Of Silence. Which is also the name of the bands self-owned record label. Now, in Persian, a Tower of Silence is known as a dakhma. Which is very similar to the band name
Tower of Silence is a circular, raised structure built by Zoroastrians for excarnation (that is, the exposure of human corpses to the elements with the purpose to enable their decomposition), in order to avoid contamination of the soil and other natural elements by the decomposing dead bodies. Carrion birds, usually vultures and other scavengers, consume the flesh. Skeletal remains are gathered into a central pit where further weathering and continued breakdown occurs.
So now everything from the album is brought together for this final act, from the mixing of all the various styles, plus a Middle Eastern flavour, which did appear, just once, earlier in the album.
I’ll refer to it as Death Metal inspired Doom, rather than more traditional Death/Doom. It feels as menacing as having your body hung up to be eaten by birds, which is probably the intention of the song anyway.
Ultimately, I’m very glad I gave the album an extra listen, as I did reap the rewards of getting to know the music a little better. Sometimes, that isn’t always possible, cramming in as many new releases as my ears can cope with. And my lone braincell, of course.
So if this review has piqued your interest, click the link to take you to the bands Bandcamp page
https://indakhma.bandcamp.com/album/he-who-sows-the-ground
https://www.facebook.com/in.dakhma/
