Sadhaka – Terma

I don't know why so many atmospheric black metal bands have emerged from Cascadia, the mountainous area that stretches from southern British Columbia to northern California. There must be some sort of magic to the place. The latest contender in the Cascadian realm is Sadhaka, a word which, from what I can gather, refers to someone of the Hindu faith who follows a particular way of life to realize one's destiny. They released their debut album, Terma, in mid-April this year.

The production has a warm and full sound which perfectly matches their nature theme. It may be a bit muffled at times, but overall I can hear everything quite well. The performance can best be described as exhibiting both sorrow and hope. The drums constantly switch between simple mid-paced beats and rapid blast beats. They're a bit hard to hear in the misty production but their performance is still great nonetheless. The vocals might take some getting used to, as they consist of a muffled shout that sounds similar to Nontinuum on their Dwelling in Oceans demo. They also perform low, droning clean vocals that are utilized by a lot of bands in the Cascadian region, Agalloch being the most prominent one, so if you don't like the black metal vocals, this will make up for it. I especially like their enchanting performance near the beginning of “Impermanence”.

The best part of this performance are the guitars. They play a lot of dark and morose mid-paced riffs which border on sounding like depressive black metal. They also play a lot of triumphant riffs which help to counteract the more melancholic riffs. Some of these riffs sound quite familiar. I hear a bit of Skagos and Oskoreien and other similar bands on some of the songs. The main riff on “Padmasambhava” reminded me of the Fear Factory song “Archetype”. I don't know why. I guess it must be in the melody.

Sadhaka presents to us an interesting take on the Cascadian sound. I especially love their guitar work, which displays a great deal of emotion, melody, and thoughtful writing. If you like warm-sounding atmospheric black metal that exhibits great songwriting, then I'm sure you'll enjoy this. This album is available at their official Bandcamp page.