Arkentype – Disorientated

[nyrating]

26th November 2015 Thomas Nielsen Album Reviews 1

I’m not necessarily a fan of every little detail this young Norwegian band does on their debut full-length, but that does not take away the fact that ‘Disorientated’ is a very, very special album. In fact, I’m tempted to say that I’ve probably never heard anything quite like it.

The cover doesn’t really give away what the genre is, so when I listened to the album the first time and the folk/soundtrack-like intro began, I thought that this was going to be yet another folk metal album. That is far from the truth. Immediately after the intro, Ashes and Dirt kicks in with a downtuned djent attack, although also with a big slab of melodic death metal a la In Flames – and, indeed, vocalist Kevin Olsen uses a style which bears resemblance to Anders Fridén’s (and you can’t help noticing when Olsen bellows ‘in flames I’m gonna drown’ – is that a nod or what?).

Although Olsen returns to the Fridén style several times, he in no way limits himself to this as he also brings on a clean vocal as well as death grunts. There’s also space for two female guest vocalists throughout the album, which definitely adds to the overall beauty of ‘Disorientated’.

And that is the thing: There is room for beauty as well as the rip and tear. There is room for strings and violins alongside the downtuned motherf*cker guitars, and there is room for tunes like Time Collapse and Ignorant Child where especially Olsen virtually does a Townsend.

I like that you can sense that this band doesn’t want to limit themselves, but still has a focus on writing songs which are actually bearable to listen to. Even if I don’t love all of the details as I started out by saying, I can completely appreciate that this is something special and that this is a special band who, if they play their cards right, could turn into one of the next big things in a not too distant future.

Here’s “Time Collapse”:

Tracklist:
01. Dear Erica
02. Ashes and Dirt
03. Welcome to My World
04. Who Are We
05. Time Collapse
06. Ignorant Child
07. Akire
08. Epiphany
09. Disorientated

Playing time: 35 minutes

Release date: 13th of November, 2015

Label: Crime Records

Website: Arkentype@facebook

About Thomas Nielsen 1051 Articles

When my old buddy Kenn Jensen asked me if I wanted to contribute to the new site he had created, then called powermetal.dk, I didn't hesitate. My love for metal music was and is great. I wrote my first review during the summer of 2004 (Moonspell's 'Antidote' album). In 2015, I took over the editor-in-chief role.