Avakr – A Word From Within (Sygil Records, 2013)

Of all the labels that have contacted me within the past year or so requesting coverage, Sygil Records is surely among the most interesting.  These guys have an ear for excellence from across the spectrum of extreme music, from drone to doom to black metal, and I’m pretty enamored with all of the various releases they graciously sent me for review.  First and foremost among them is A Word From Within, the debut full length from Bloomington, Indiana black metal duo Avakr.

Avakr refer to their music as “shamanic neo-pagan black metal,” and to these ears this is an accurate descriptor.  The sound of A Word From Within is lo-fi, earthy and entrancing; fans of established USBM hordes such as Ash Borer and Fell Voices will find much to appreciate here, but Avakr are noisier, filthier and more abrasive.  The album is an outpouring of raw emotion that lulls you into a strange state of hypnosis across nearly thirty-five minutes, characterized by scathing torrents of ultra-distorted tremolo-riffing, careening, clattering drums and throat-rending vocals.

I’m assuming the album was recorded live, such is the rough-around-the-edges quality of the audio, which it should be noted translates perfectly to the cassette format.  With only a single guitar, drums and vocals, Avakr are as stripped down as can be, yet they create lengthy, dynamic songs that swell with youthful vigor, occasionally letting up to reveal musical moments as tranquil as the nature scene that adorns the tape cover.  The serenity typically doesn’t last long before being swallowed whole by the band’s primitive blackened fury, a wall of sound that’s surprisingly thick and corrosive given the minimal instrumentation.  Avakr may only be two musicians, but they make enough intensely passionate racket together to put most bands with twice as many members to shame.

Indeed, Avakr have released one of my favorite black metal recordings so far this year in A Word From Within; a devastatingly emotional slab of willfully esoteric, buzzing distortion possessed by a sense of reckless abandon and earnestness that surely takes its influence from old school American hardcore.  This is authentic outsider art of the highest order and I honestly can’t recommend it enough.  The cassette is still available from Sygil, so show Avakr and the label some love and pick it up for a measly $6.00; you can even stream the entire album via Bandcamp before you buy.

http://www.sygilrecords.org