Morning Star

Description

With Morning Star, Këkht Aräkh achieves a more authentic and refined version of himself. Recorded between Berlin and Stockholm, this album is the fruit of an intense period of personal and artistic development, blending aggressive black metal passages with immersive and textured soundscapes, both intimate and immense. Since his beginnings in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, Dmitry (aka Crying Orc), the sole mastermind behind this project, has sought a singular path within black metal. This vision materialized with his first EP Through the Branches to Eternity (2018), followed by the albums Night & Love (2018) and Pale Swordsman (2021), establishing a characteristic tension between fierce and visceral black metal and delicate and introspective ballads. On Morning Star, this dynamic reaches a new dimension. Created at a moment of great artistic clarity, the album explores a more raw and personal emotional palette, shaped by stress, anxiety, and long periods of creative block, lending it a rare immediacy and vulnerability. Dmitry recorded almost all of the instruments himself, with Jonathan (Spira Me, Vanskapth, Olycka) on drums. Bladee contributed vocals and lyrics to "Eternal Martyr," an unexpected collaboration that reveals an intuitive alchemy. VS-55 and Varg2TM add abstract samples and subtle textural work, giving Morning Star its distinctive grain and analog warmth, while James Ginzburg (Emptyset, Osmium) handled the final mastering, enhancing the dynamic depth and atmospheric richness. With Morning Star, Këkht Aräkh merges his past explorations with unprecedented collaborative energy, creating an album that pays homage to 90s black metal tradition while embracing lo-fi warmth, melancholic melodies, sound experimentation, and emotional sincerity. The result is a deeply personal work, an album that marks both a culmination and a continuation of his artistic journey.