Review by Vinny for Arkhaaik - Uihtis (2025)

Jünger Tumilon is described as a musical collective from Switzerland. What it appears to mean is that most of the band that make up the collective all share members or are involved in multiple projects that make up the collective. It’s like a Kibbutz for fucked up music basically. The trio that makes up Arkhaaik all conform to this multi-faceted approach to band membership, with no fewer than eleven different, active bands being listed as containing members of Arkhaaik. Described as blackened doom by at least one reviewer on Bandcamp, they certainly do not conform to any norm when it comes to their sound.

Whilst I would perhaps challenge the blackened element as being that prominent in their sound, there is no question on the doom front when it comes to Uihtis. Riffs are thick and atmospheres often thicker, the tribal aspects to the sound invoking as much mystery into proceedings as they do heaviness. The theme of the album is a Bronze Age hunt, obviously; aren’t all good metal albums themed on this after all? Except the album goes beyond the mere act of hunting and the ceremonial slaughter of an animal and adopts the concept for half of the album of the sun hunting the moon and vice-versa. Did you follow that? Keep up, folks.

Joking aside, Uihtis is not half as bonkers as I expected it to be. The chanting vocals that expand tracks beyond the gruff approach that is generally deployed do fit well in terms of furthering that transcendental aspect to the record. Where those mining black metal riffs do get to stretch their legs, they bring some element of dashing menace to proceedings. Yet in the main, Uihtis is structured on strong percussion and rhythmic riffing to drive the message home. Arkhaaik’s sound is the marching of foot soldiers, not as an army, more as resistance fighters. A small, yet capable band of warriors, relentless in their pursuit of their prey, regardless of whether it be man or beast.

With no track being under ten minutes, the band have lots of time to fill and thankfully their approach to song writing rewards the listener. Cleverly balancing the use of atmosphere and instrumentation to build and temper tracks appropriately, I soon found myself absorbed into tracks such as the mesmerising ‘Hrkþos Heshr Hiagom’. The structure changes regularly enough on this track to keep it interesting without losing momentum or the sense of intrigue either. This is the main reason for the success of Uihtis, it is varied without feeling like it is just lots of things thrown into a studio mix for the hell of it. It won’t make many end of year lists probably as there is more than enough content here to alienate a hardened metalhead. Yet it should be recognised for its ingenuity alone. My advice is to look beyond the length of the tracks and settle into the content.