A sonic creation of power, atmosphere, and asceticism: After two demos, Azketem leaves profane soundscapes, manifesting the idea of Azetik Metal with every coming chapter. Now marks the beginning with the debut album Azetik: the force which aspires to thrive, rushing rivers pouring into minds devoted to transcendency. At once prudently traditional and brazenly unorthodox, Azketem's iteration of black metal simmers and shimmers, flooding the senses in a fever dream of spectral mysticism and cosmic splendor. Its hues are richly, regally purple, its soundfield somehow Spartan and smothering simultaneously, as riffs and rhythms get stretched to their limit - faster and in reverse, vertigo assured - but alluringly stitched together with an aesthete's touch. "Hades Norway meets Darkspace" is one perhaps-reductive way of describing Azetik, but mainman Azken's manner of language, his totality of imagery, and his stridently DIY spirit all bespeak a current entirely his own - wild, wanderlusting, and yet remarkably refined. To walk in Azketem's looming lunar shadows here is to embark upon a journey of peeling apart infinite layers while donning ghostly armor of alien design.
