Crying Orc, the man behind the black metal band Këkht Aräkh, has been met with a lot of polarizing discourse within the black metal listening community. Some people, including many black metal elitists, claim he’s “pop music” and ultimately hate on his output. On the other end of the spectrum, some people enjoy the popularization of different sorts of subject material and sounds in black metal, some even being introduced to the band and even the entire genre through his art through services like social media algorithms. What many people who’ve listened to this band neglect to mention is that the modern neoclassical aspects of Këkht’s music are what make the band so accessible, beautiful and noteworthy. The black metal genre may end up constraining the band into a specific niche instead of becoming fully realized artistically.
Before we can get into Këkht’s black metal, we need to know the culture behind the genre to help inform us as to why some fans don’t like him. Black metal has had an extremely tumultuous history with a plethora of controversial musicians for reasons ranging from Satanism, anti-religious ideology, political extremism and committing a variety of crimes. Despite all this, black metal is not solely defined by these people.
The black metal movement eventually became international. It has experimented with several other sounds and genres such as folk, shoegaze, electronic, psychedelia, gothic rock, punk, doom metal and harsh noise. There are also many different subgenres, such as depressive suicidal, melodic and atmospheric.
Another subgenre of black metal is the romantic variant, which typically is more melodic in nature. Instead of explicitly extremist, Satanic, and/or misanthropic views and lyrics, the music typically focuses on subjects such as the typical depression (as romantic black metal is an offshoot of the depressive subgenre), love and a generally poetic finding of positivity in negativity. Këkht popularized romantic black metal but didn’t invent it.
Këkht’s 2019 “Night & Love” is stronger from a black metal standpoint than 2021’s “Pale Swordsman.” The production emphasizes the instrumentals more on the former and there’s a less muddy distinction between the black metal and neoclassical. “Pale Swordsman,” as iconic as it is for romantic black metal, ultimately feels weaker as black metal because of this balance between neoclassical and black metal elements blurring the lines in an unsatisfying way, feeling too fast-paced for its own good.
There’s also the question of if Këkht even wants to keep making black metal music explicitly. With songs like the laughable black metal rap song “Wanderer,” it seems like he wants to be multiple genres. Instead of confining himself to a single aesthetic or genre, it could be beneficial for Këkht to expand his artistic breadth without the sole label of black metal on him.
That being said, the neoclassical elements of “Pale Swordsman” are worth praising for their calming nature and high quality. Këkht expanded upon his previous efforts on “Night & Love” excellently in this regard, culminating in tracks such as his piano piece “Nocturne” and the ballad “Swordsman.” Këkht ended up making some of the most relaxing and comforting black metal-adjacent neoclassical atmospheres and music out there so far between these two albums alone using less instrumentation.
Likewise, “Swordsman,” in conjunction with his feature on romantic black metal act Kanashimi’s song “Lullaby,” proves that he’s a better clean singer than a black metal vocalist. That’s not to diminish his strengths at growling; it’s just that his clean voice is so beautiful, especially for such a menacing genre of music. Këkht could genuinely do an album like the early Ulver on “Bergtatt” back when they were a black metal band, still including the heavy instrumentation but with clean vocals instead of the overdone growls.
The sound of “Pale Swordsman” certainly attracted a new generation of black metal fans specifically because of the album’s neoclassical accessibility. This is not a bad thing, despite elitists’ rhetoric, as art is meant to be shared. Many people who never expected themselves to like a black metal album for whatever reason may have ended up enjoying this album not only for its concept, but the execution of the neoclassical moments and the black metal edge to them. The comparatively softer sound of the black metal to other releases eases the audience into the genre. Those who stayed for this romantic and gothic rendition of black metal were rewarded with even more discoveries if they wished to go down the black metal rabbit hole.
Këkht Aräkh is extremely overhated by some and overlauded by others. At the same time, this project that only began near the end of last decade has so much potential, especially within the neoclassical movement. The traditional black metal aspects, while not necessarily bad, aren’t what attracts and retains most listeners. Këkht is extremely refreshing for the black metal sphere because he shows that the genre can grow in different ways from the norm both sonically and lyrically. Still, it seems like he wants to expand from a single genre. For someone that poured his entire heart into a concept album about longing for love, breaking many levels of boundaries, Këkht should know best that the most beautiful thoughts lay adjacent to the darkness, regardless of genre.