Draghkar/Helcaraxë – A Glorious Call in the Terrible Darkness – Split (Review)

This is a split between Draghkar and Helcaraxë, both death metal bands from the US.

I missed this earlier in the year, but here it is now, and you’d better believe it’s worth your time to give it a few spins. I’m a big fan of Draghkar, so I couldn’t let this slide by without comment, (make sure you check out World Unraveled, split with Desekryptor, The Endless Howling Abyss, and At the Crossroads of Infinity). On this split with Helcaraxë both bands offer up one song.

Draghkar, (who now also feature the guitarist, (and more), from Azath/Ripped to Shreds), offer up The Last Dreamer, a 4-minute stormer that showcases the band’s old-school death metal to good effect. It’s a quality piece of work with some compelling riffs and a good use of bass. But what’s this? Clean vocals and a strong heavy metal influence amidst the death metal carnage? It’s unexpected, but also welcome; The Last Dreamer is a damn good song.

Whether this overt heavy metal side of the band will remain for future releases I have no idea, but I like what I’m hearing here nonetheless. The Draghkar story seems potentially set to become even more interesting!

I’m totally unfamiliar with Helcaraxë, but they seem to have been around a while, and their track – the 4-minute Satan ad Infinitum – reveals them to be old-school death metal with a melodic slant. Yep, this is good stuff. Well-written and steeped in 90s vibes, Helcaraxë clearly know what they’re doing with their material. It puts me in mind of early Katatonia, Dark Tranquillity, and Unleashed, which is not bad company to keep at all.

A Glorious Call in the Terrible Darkness delivers a short release that hits the spot. One for underground death metal connoisseurs to explore.