Malaysia is better known for its death metal than its black metal, but they have a decent sized black metal scene. One band from this scene is Arkhaytulmayt. They formed in 1998 and released their only demo, Evening Flight, one year later. They were then arrested on blasphemy charges. The band members are still around and are currently involved in other projects, but Arkhaytulmayt hasn't released anything since the arrest. This demo maybe controversial, but is it any good? Let's find out.
When I pushed play, the first thing I noticed was just how upbeat the riffs were. They straddle the line between black metal and thrash metal. Since this is a demo, the production is pretty raw, but everything can still be heard quite well. It's not a muffled mess like most other black metal demos I've listened to. The bass can't be heard all the time, but it does manage to show up on occasion. The drums are also kind of hard to hear, but they put on a pretty decent performance. Of course, it's the guitars that steal the show. You usually think of black metal as dark and evil, but the riffs these guys play are melodic and optimistic, and sometimes quite catchy. They do make a few mistakes, but overall, their performance is pretty sweet, especially on the last song.
The only part I didn't like were the vocals. He gives off these cloudy, high-pitched shrieks that sound similar to a poltergeist, but they don't seem to sit right with me. I don't know why. Other than that, this is a really nice demo that features some pretty catchy melodic guitars and offers an insightful glimpse into the Malaysian black metal scene's infancy.
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