Style: Progressive Metal, Djent (Clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Periphery, Tesseract, The Contortionist, Corelia
Review by: Christopher
Country: Sweden
Release date: 12 May, 2023
When Karmanjakah burst onto the scene with their debut full-length A Book About Itself in 2021, it felt like something of a renaissance for that particular stripe of djent. A much-maligned genre with plenty of uninspired 8-string riffing, djent suffers from a lot of filler and too few groups pushing the genre forward. But Karmanjakah had something more, the energy of Periphery with the more melodic atmospheres of Tesseract, polyrhythms aplenty, soaring clean vocals and a greater dynamic spectrum to explore. Expectations were high for a follow-up.
Which brings us to Ancient Skills, a four-track follow-up EP from the Swedish quartet, which stands out as a clear evolution from A Book About Itself. More ethereal, even psychedelic, Ancient Skills leans far more into the Tesseract influence utilising vast synth atmospheres whilst moving somewhat away from the Periphery-esque focus of their debut.
Indeed, everything about Ancient Skills feels softer. Lunquist’s vocals could be a little pitchy and overdone at times on their debut, but here his delivery feels less forced. He also plays Nordic harp, which adds an empyrean quality to those Tesseractian atmospheres on “Breathing”, and keys, which open “Flying” with an exquisite piano tone. The harsh vocals that were used judiciously on their debut have been completely dispensed with here, and it’s to the EP’s credit; Lundquist’s cleans are simply too arresting to be held back by more generic bellows which felt as though they were included out of necessity rather than because they suited the band’s style.
There’s an absolutely gorgeous saz (Turkish lute) addition on closing track “Listening” which I’d like to have heard more from—more of this sort of thing, please! But in terms of riffs, the general softening of Karmanjakah’s hard edges does have a victim: Viggo Örsan’s penchant for journeying all over the fretboard is somewhat dampened here, more often swapped in for chugs, admittedly of a more creative variety than your average djent chug—Örsan has carved out his own distinct playing style within a genre that’s hard to stand out in. While this suits the calmer style of Ancient Skills where the guitar is acting more as a heavier counterpoint to the atmospheres and melodies floating above, it nevertheless feels like a loss. That’s not to say the creative riffs are entirely gone, just less frequent.
Ancient Skills feels like a missing link, a clear example of a band’s evolution sitting in a fossil record that’s waiting to be written. Most of the stylistic changes are for the better and build upon Karmanjakah’s virtues, all lending to a short, pleasant EP with a very clear guiding aesthetic. Whatever these guys produce next, you can bet it’ll be interesting.
Recommended tracks: Flying, Listening
You may also like: Death of the Author, Celaris, Terrestria
Final verdict: 7/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram
Label: Independent
Karmanjakah is:
– Viggo Örsan (guitars, saz)
– Jonas Lundquist (vocals, keyboards, nordic harp)
– Sebastian Brydniak (drums)
– Lukas Ohlsson (bass)
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