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This is (MI’s) Dakhma. There are many (named) like it but this one is better.
This Dakma is not your friend. It is intense. You must listen as intensely as Dakhma plays. Without volume Dakhma is useless. Without Dakhma, your ears are useless. You must listen to Dakhma loud. You must listen to Dakhma louder than the enemy telling you to turn it down. You must drown them before they silence you.
You will keep Dakhma at the ready even as you are ready for Dakhma. You will become part of each other.
Before Grind, you must swear this creed. Dakhma and yourself are the defenders of crust. You are the masters of black metal. You are the saviors of ferocity. So be it, until there is catharsis and peace.
Grindin’.
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| Photos by Carmelo Española. |
In recent years there’s been a lot of talk about female-fronted occult doom bands (which I love) but at the other end of the spectrum there seems to be a lot of grind (hybrid) bands with female “singers” tearing heads off like it’s their reason for existing. Cloud Rat slays, Couch Slut has a new release in the works, Fuck the Facts have been at it forever, Closet Witch totally wrecked my brain and now Dakhma has set out to eviscerate with Suna Kulto.
So if having a throat shredder without testes isn’t considered a novelty anymore (which it shouldn’t be) then what is there to set Dakhma apart from the rest? Well, how many grind bands do you know with songs around 20 minutes long? Yeah. (If you answered this with any number above two, get in touch with me.) That’s right. Suna Kulto is two tracks covering a rough and raw 40 minutes.
As you can imagine “Coins” and “East” are more than just blasting away at 1000 bpm for 20 minutes. That would be ludicrous and exhausting even for the listener. Despite being tagged as black/crust/grind one could almost throw “post-” into the mix. But they don’t sound like some sappy band when not pinning you against a wall under a flurry of kidney punches. There’s ample melody mixed in. “East” has a nice long section that occupies the same sonic space as a band like Alcest or even Pelican. “Coins” does too for that matter.
Guitarist Derek seemingly does it all, from blistering grind to atmospheric black metal to introspective melody. Stitching all that together takes vision and he has it. There’s nothing awkward about the transitions between styles. Matching him pound-for-pound is Dylan on the drums. Subtle when he needs to be and explosively violent otherwise, he’s a destructive force bashing away like there’s no tomorrow.
Let’s not forget Claire. Talk about tempest! She screams with reckless abandon, no holding back, no fucks given. But she’s not all over the record. Satan knows what she’s doing when she’s not losing her mind but she lets the songs breathe. The vocals are well placed and make an impact. And at least we know she’s breathing. She’s got quite the set of lungs!
Putting it all together Suna Kulto sounds and feels like a storm. Sometimes you hit the eye, sometimes it lashes and beats you, exhausting your will, and sometimes it rises above the furor and the majesty of the hurricane of aggression is seen from a beautiful vantage point.
Grace, grandeur and scope meet intensity, catharsis and force to make a captivating exercise in pushing boundaries. Don’t let this pass you by.