Këkht Aräkh Presents His Third Album
Today, the black metal project released his highly anticipated album, Morning Star. The release blends 90s black metal traditions with a lo-fi aesthetic and intimate soundscapes.
The artist's new album balances ferocious black metal with tender ballads, maintaining a perfect equilibrium. According to the musician, the LP’s sound was significantly influenced by a prolonged creative crisis and anxiety, making the material both vulnerable and immediate. Simultaneously, this period marked a significant moment of creative growth for the author.
"This album was created at a time when I became a more skilled artist, with a much clearer sense of my own sound than in my previous work. It explores a different emotional palette: rawer, more honest, and more personal. On this record, I feel more like myself than ever before," shares the project's creator, Dmitry (aka Crying Orc).
The material was recorded between Berlin and Stockholm. The artist performed all instruments himself, with the exception of the drums, which were recorded by Jonathan (from the projects Spira Me, Vanskapth, and Olycka).
Musicians Bladee, VS--55, and Varg2™ also contributed to the creation of Morning Star. The latter two provided the sound with its characteristic grit and analog warmth through subtle texture design. As for the Swedish rapper Bladee, his collaboration with Këkht Aräkh was a cross-genre exchange of experiences.
"Bladee appears on Eternal Martyr, contributing vocals and co-writing the lyrics—a collaboration that might initially seem unlikely but revealed an intuitive chemistry. Both artists share an emotional directness and a drive to forge paths outside their respective genres. Dmitry has long admired Bladee’s introspective lyrical style and saw how it could be translated into black metal without compromising the genre. Bladee’s own interest in black metal created a natural space for collaboration, and the project grew organically from their shared excitement for merging musical worlds," the press release states.
The album was released via the New York-based label Sacred Bones Records in digital, vinyl, cassette, and CD formats.
Këkht Aräkh is a solo black metal project founded in 2018 in Mykolaiv, Ukraine. Behind the project is the artist Crying Orc, the former drummer of the post-black metal band Cuckoo's Nest. Currently, the project’s discography includes three albums and several singles.
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