Originally hailing from Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia, yet currently residing in Germany Darkestrah is a five-piece group labeled as Shamanic Pagan Black-Metal that recurs to the Pagan themes of their homeland as main source of inspiration. Or at least that’s what the press-release of Paragon Records states about their fourth full-length work “The Great Silk Road”, a conceptual and spiritual journey to the band’s Shaman roots.Although Darkestrah utilizes some traditional Kyrgyz instruments like the Temir-Komuz which could be indentified as a jaws harp, a string instrument known as Mandola, acoustic guitars and cello to convey a certain folk element into their sonority, “The Great Silk Road” is essential a traditional Black-Metal record with minimalist, repetitive and dissonant riffs and raspy and grim vocals occasionally tempered with small portions of Folk music. It’s stylistically close to bands like Kawir, Kampfar and Negura Bunget, yet the lack of some of truly memorable songs prevents the group from ascending to same levels of the aforementioned bands. Nevertheless, it’s a release worth checking out for its inspirational and original values. (6/10)
Band info: www.darkestrah.vze.com
Label info: www.paragonrecords.org
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