KAAL AKUMA - Turiya
June 2, 2023, a year ago
(Nuclear Winter)
Bangladesh-based death metal band Kaal Akuma live in the sewers and have love for the gutters here on awesome three-song EP Turiya. The atmosphere is pure cave on opener “Ego Death”, all 8:22 of it, the band channelling the usual greats—Immolation, Incantation—but adding in their own unique form of spelunking. The song tells a story, taking me places, and I'm loving it, even though I'm in dire need of a shower afterwards, the grinding and blasting at the song's climax pulling me into a vortex I didn't even know existed.
The riffing at around 6:30 is just to die for, the feedback at the end an extremely appropriate way to end a song that is not so much a song as it is an epic journey via DM, which is my favourite kind of epic journey. Damn, impressive, and on next tune “Tiyanak” they go more concise with a 4:49 run time, very much in a classic Incantation framework here, but done with an incredible ease and finesse.
Closer “Ignorance Is Bliss” is another huge one at 7:47, and it brings with it an unexpected black metal atmosphere in both riffing and vocals, and it's weird, and I think it works, although the band's power is back down in the murk, avoiding the rats, drowning in filth, refusing to stop playing even as they get covered in the blanket of oppression they've created.
