Artamene

Artamene

Ziggurat

Wormoholedeath: 2022

https://artamene-official.com/

https://m.facebook.com/Official.Artamene/

https://artamene-official.bandcamp.com/

http://www.wormholedeath.com/

I must admit I have never had an Iranian band coming through my headphones before, but if the quality that Artamene is offering is anything to go by, I sincerely hope it will not be the last. This is heavy metal with modern and eastern influences. The latter is mainly done by the way the guitar solos are conducted. With those it isn’t always about cramming as many notes as possible into them, but it does consist of bending the notes in such a way that they sound different and stand out.

The music is dark, threatening and extremely addictive. That makes it such a shame that a beautiful tune like Fear The Darkness is cut short by one of those ugly phenomena called fade-outs. Just when the suspense is getting through, it just vanishes. Thankfully it is one of the few times Artamene uses this wretched gimmick.

The voices used range from clean to grunting and growling, and they are used together when possible, adding to the intensity of the experience that Ziggurat provides. So, you will hear old fashioned melodic and heavy metal riffs coming by with nu-metal sounds, death metal foundations with thrash feelings and all those mixed together when possible. So, if you are one of those pure metal followers, this won’t be for you. If, on the other hand, you enjoy mixing styles in a good way, you’ll really enjoy Artamene’s Ziggurat album.

If you wish to find out in which formats you can buy this treasure, just go to the Bandcamp site. Please note that you will have to have an account there.

MetalWim van Grunsven