Name: Pale Swordsman
Brand: Këkht Aräkh

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

SBR3040CD

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Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2022-12-02

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

0843563155271

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Total Cap

1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

SBR3040LP

Black

0843563154359

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1 / Extended format: No / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No / black

Artist

Këkht Aräkh

Genre GB

Metal

Label GB

Sacred Bones Records

Sacred Bones Records is a New York label founded in 2007. With an impressive team including Taylor Brode as the general manager, [designer], [screen-printing artist], and [video maker], they have established themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the music industry.

Their catalogue number scheme includes various formats such as LPs, mail-order exclusives, mystery 12", flexi-discs, tapes, mixtapes, CDs, reissues, remixes, and releases specifically for the Japanese market. Each format is easily identifiable by its unique catalogue number.

With their informative and authoritative tone of voice, Sacred Bones Records has become a go-to label for music enthusiasts looking for diverse and high-quality releases across different formats. Explore their extensive catalogue and discover new sounds that will captivate your ears.

Back In Stock

Këkht Aräkh is the Ukrainian project founded in 2018 by Dmitry Marchenko. Originally released on the Finnish label Livor Mortis in 2021, Pale Swordsman goes to even greater extents in building a bold and atmospheric sonic palette, and it’s now seeing a worldwide reissue via Brooklyn label Sacred Bones. For the sound design of the album, Dmitry was inspired by The Stooges’ Raw Power to deliver a more soft sounding album, decisively less “metal”. Traditional black metal song structures still persist in songs like “Night Descends” and “In The Garden”. However, their rawness and fast tempos is quickly cut through by dark ambient passages in “Amor” and “Intro” and softly played desolate ballads like “Nocturne” and “Lily”. The crown jewel is the album closer “Swordsman”, a track that displays a superb gothic sensibility, a poem recited over a deeply melancholic piano melody. “The Christian concept of a person ridding themselves of evil to find inner peace or to be able to leave this world safely has become the core inspiration for the song.” Dmitry explains “However, this is not the only reading possible. I purposely avoid specifics in my lyrics so that the listener can always give the song their own meaning.” The inspiration for the concept of the album also came from David Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. “I really enjoy it when an album tells a story about some character so I came up with one.” says Dmitry when explaining the origin of the Pale Swordsman. The character is portrayed on the striking album cover art - a figure sitting aloof with a sword and a rose in each hand – and clearly symbolises the romantic juxtaposition of belligerence and fragile beauty that permeates the album’s sound and atmosphere. Pale Swordsman delivers a foreboding yet bittersweet melancholy through poetic lyrics, soft interludes, raw and distorted guitars, eerie drums and harsh vocals - a fragile yet potent mix that successfully amplifies the ambience.

Pale Swordsman

Music GB