Akem Mainyu – Umbra Utrala (CD Album – Noctivagant)
Genre/Influences: Dark-ambient, industrial.
Background/Info: Akem Mainyu is a Russian project active since 2016. This is the first time I ever heard of this formation.
Content: The main basis of the work is influenced by dark-ambient music. I noticed industrial sound treatments and field recordings (or samplings) bringing an experimental touch to the work. The tracks are diversified, featuring ghost-like voices and a few epic arrangements. The final cut creates a kind of glasshouse effect.
+ + + : This is not the most common kind of dark-ambient music. Akem Mainyu claims to be inspired by ritual music and that’s maybe, even if I don’t notice these elements, what makes the work ‘different’. I like the album’s diversity and its strong visual strength. Both debut cuts are overwhelming and create a sensation of cold sweat. I also want to say a word about the cool artwork, which is definitely ritual-like.
– – – : The artwork is cool, but you really need to decode the name of the project.
Conclusion: What I like on Noctivagant Records is the rather atypical style of all projects. It’s definitely dark-ambient driven, but with some different elements making the originality. Akem Mainyu definitely belongs to this fine list.
Best songs: “Under The Dying Sun”, “Spheres”.
Rate: (7½).
Artist: www.facebook.com/AkemMainyu
Label: www.nvagant.com / www.facebook.com/nvagant
Support Side-Line
More people read Side-Line than ever, and there is still no paywall and no advertising. Readers pay for it instead - from $5 a month.
Why we ask
Advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news organisations we have not put up a paywall, and we refuse to add annoying advertising, so we need to ask for your help. Side-Line’s independent journalism takes time, money and hard work to produce, and we do it to push the artists we like, who are equally fighting to survive.
Handled by PayPal.
I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.
