{"id":47744,"date":"2025-08-05T19:50:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T19:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/47744\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T19:50:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T19:50:07","slug":"arkhaaik-uihtis-review-angry-metal-guy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/47744\/","title":{"rendered":"Arkhaaik – Uihtis Review | Angry Metal Guy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Arkhaaik is a fascinating band. Usually, when a metal project endeavors to write a historically-accurate deep dive into ages gone by, they make some kind of power metal, and the ages are Middle. Maybe the ages are pre-1,000s, and they make black metal. But rarely\u2014if ever\u2014is the age Bronze, but I guess when the topic is the Bronze age, the band is blackened, death-y, sludge-y annihilation, and their name is Arkhaaik. Today\u2019s topic is Uihtis (\u201cthe hunt\u201d), which represents these Swissy\u2019s second foray into this deep, deep history. Previously reviewed here<\/a> by Carcharodon, it\u2019s been five years since *d\u02b0g\u0311\u02b0m\u0325t\u00f3s, their debut full-length release. That\u2019s a drop in the bucket as far as their historic subject matter goes, but plenty of time for a sound to evolve. Have Arkhaaik discovered iron on Uihtis?<\/p>\n

As with *d\u02b0g\u0311\u02b0m\u0325t\u00f3s, Uihtis is inspired by history that is beyond ancient. It is written in a reconstructed approximation of Proto-Indo European, the presumed language from which most European languages are descended. Uihtis explores the world of Bronze Age hunting from physical and spiritual lenses, and tries to capture the prehistoric experience through the reconstructed language, brutal riffing and melodies, and an intense blend of death and atmospheric metal. Everything from the guitars to the drums to the vocals is huge. No song is shorter than ten minutes, and elements of ritualistic melody are similarly big\u2014dominating, guttural chanting, hypnotic drumming, and nature samples, twisted into something stranger. Arkhaaik don\u2019t mind that you have no frame of reference for their inspiration. The music does all the talking for them.<\/p>\n

Uihtis by ARKHAAIK<\/a><\/p>\n

In his review of *d\u02b0g\u0311\u02b0m\u0325t\u00f3s, Carcharodon noted that \u201cthis debut feels unfocused and as though Arkhaaik have not yet figured out how to properly meld their ritual cult stuff with the more metal elements;\u201d Uihtis shows they are getting closer. Unlike *d\u02b0g\u0311\u02b0m\u0325t\u00f3s, there are very few extended passages of ambience or ritualism. Instead, the music itself is adorned with the aforementioned rhythmic chants and ritualistic melody. This is, as I mentioned, a great thing for Uihtis\u2019s concept, but it also means that the music itself is melodic and fun to follow. Alien though the subject matter may be (at least to me, who is not in any way, shape, or form a hunter), the melodeath-like riffs of \u201cGeutores Suhnos\u201d are easy to understand, because they\u2019re awesome. The vocals in particular are mighty\u2014\u201dHrk\u00feos Heshr Hiagom\u201d muscles its way into your skull with dominant, death metal riffing, but it\u2019s the primal roars that really dominate. As Uihtis barrels along, the blend of ritual, riff, and roar blends together to create a remarkable union of an album, one where the songs, concepts, and passages feel like they\u2019re contributing to one grand idea of an album.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

On the other hand, it can be less than ideal for each song on an album to feel like it\u2019s blended with its neighbors. Uihtis is comprised of four songs and clocks in at just under fifty minutes. I\u2019m not opposed to long songs on principle, but I do feel like Uihtis could have been shorter than it is. \u201cGeutores Sunhos,\u201d for example, is my favorite on the album. It\u2019s huge, it\u2019s riff-tastic, and expertly blends Arkhaaik\u2019s heavy, melodic, and ritualistic ideas. Midway through the song, there\u2019s a furious blackened interlude that builds up to the final chorus, a huge, ominous barrage of riffs, chants, and melody. When that chorus winds down, ten minutes in, it feels like the song should too, but there are still a full five minutes to go, and I can never honestly recall them after the song ends. This feels like a repeated theme through Uihtis, where each song has a unique and exciting main idea, but is prone to wandering for a few minutes here and there.<\/p>\n

Arkhaaik have taken what seems to be a unique idea and really made it their own on Uihtis. Their blend of melody, heaviness, and (pre-)historic inspiration makes them extremely compelling. While I do think Uihtis contains a little too much here and there, it all culminates into a fascinating journey, one I think is well worth experiencing. Arkhaaik has an affinity for storytelling, and the atmosphere is truly fun to experience, and their music is all the better for it.<\/p>\n

Rating: 3.0\/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb\/s mp3
Label: Eisenwald Records<\/a>
Website: arkhaaik.bandcamp.com<\/a>
Releases Worldwide: July 25th, 2025<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arkhaaik is a fascinating band. Usually, when a metal project endeavors to write a historically-accurate deep dive into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[975,976,33044,49,48,978,25321,33045,75,982,341,208,209,33046,33047,33048],"class_list":["post-47744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-975","tag-3-0","tag-arkhaaik","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-death-metal","tag-doom-metal","tag-eisenwald-records","tag-entertainment","tag-jul25","tag-music","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-sludge","tag-swiss-metal","tag-uihtis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}