Draghkar - At the Crossroads of Infinity (2020)^{Release ID: 22866}

A Vile Amalgamation

When it comes to Death Metal, I've come to the realization that the common, modern style just doesn't do it for me most of the time. "Meat and potatoes" Death Metal certainly has an ample amount of gut wrenching, vile riffage and aggression to keep me satiated for a bit, but there needs to be a bit more pizzazz to really capture my attention. I looked to bands like Blood Incantation and Tomb Mold last year to give me that shot of amped up Death Metal adrenaline without skimping out on the depth and complexity that amazing Death Metal can have. As for this year, Ulcerate and VoidCeremony have been holding down the Progressive and Technical Death Metal sides of things, but Draghkar has come along and shaken up my Death Metal listening with a debut album that manages to touch on so many different influences that it becomes difficult to nail it down to anything. Fast and furious old school Death Metal blended with old school Black Metal riff leanings with a ton of melody and a bit of creative modern flair really wasn't something I was expecting to hear, but I've certainly come around to it in the past few weeks.

Debuts that pull from a multitude of different influences and subgenres have always been the most exciting to me since it lets new blood fully flex their creative muscles in a way that doesn't necessarily have to appeal to a certain subgenre or criteria. At the Crossroads of Infinity takes full advantage of this, cramming elements and ideas from Death, Black, and even a bit of Doom metal into a succinct 35 minute package that, while rocky at places, separates itself from other, more straightforward Death Metal acts from this year. Draghkar have a unique and winning formula with their instrumentals and production, even though their songwriting and transitions do occasionally slip them up. The layered guitar solos and leads allow for a ton of melody to shine through the general riffing, the bass is wicked when it needs to be but isn't as overbearing and prevalent as something like VoidCeremony, and the vocals are just the right amount of extreme and coherent for what they're playing. There's a ton of swapping back and forth between Death Metal chug and Black Metal riffing and soloing, which creates the chaotic theme that At the Crossroads of Infinity attempts to have. This, coupled with the dirty and old-school extreme metal production, gives the album a unique identity that I wish that more bands would take advantage of.

The two opening and shorter tracks "The First Death" and "Beyond Despair, the Dawn of Rebirth" showcase the blended extreme metal themes in a way that really shows how much room for exploration there is with Death and Black Metal. Most of the riffing and solos in the first two tracks harken back to early 90's Black Metal with their colder and pushed back production, but the Death Metal style vocals, bass, and erratic drumming give it a vile and aggressive punch that works out extremely well. The riffs are well thought out, more complex than your average Black and Death blend, and just have more substance to them overall. "Pursued by Black Forms" gives another rendition of this formula while "Seeking Oblivion" slows things down with a Gothic or Doom-like intro followed up with some seriously crunchy chugs flourished with some tremolo here and there and an obligatorily nasty vocal performance. The two 8-minute tracks are where the meat is on At the Crossroads of Infinity though, with the title track especially showcasing Draghkar's extreme metal fusion endeavor. The slower, almost Doom Metal-like sustains being integrated with the crushing Death Metal chugs really livens up the progression of each of these tracks as the crazy soloing and surprisingly audible bass licks steal the show. Even though both of these songs have pretty similar ideas "At the Crossroad of Infinity" is tighter and makes much better use of that killer bass that Draghkar has. They also let the vocalist flex his extreme metal chops which sit right in the pocket of being aggressive enough to let the Death Metal influence pop, but not necessarily being so overbearing that it drones the rest of the band out.

At the Crossroads of Infinity may feel underdeveloped to some, but it was the breath of fresh air that I personally needed in the Death Metal landscape this year. This album shows an incredible amount of potential in harnessing different extreme metal influences without necessarily sounding contrived or stale. The influences are obviously there, but they're used in such a way that feels forward-thinking and new in a few ways. The downside is that Draghkar sometimes sound like they overstepped their boundaries as performers a bit during certain sections, especially in "An Erosion of the Eternal Soul" with some riffs sounding a little off at times. The song structure in the shorter tracks also leaves them feeling unfinished as they sometimes end seemingly out of nowhere like on "Beyond Despair, the Dawn of Rebirth", but I found the 8-minute ones to be very well structured for what they were going for. I think Draghkar are onto something here and the follies that they have aren't enough to keep me from enjoying this short but sweet extreme metal trek and I sincerely hope to see them evolve from here.