Arktotus are a band from Russia that plays a melodic mixture of black and death metal and this is a review of their 2022 album "Black Veins" which will be released on April 29th by Kult und Kaos Productions.
Synths and classical guitars start off the album before going into more of a heavier and melodic musical direction. When the music speeds up a decent amount of tremolo picking and blast beats can be heard while the vocals are a mixture of black metal screams and death metal growls and the songs are also heavily rooted in the Swedish style.
Throughout the recording you can also hear a decent mixture of slow, mid paced and fast parts while the solos and leads are also done in a very melodic style. Synths also make a return on one of the later tracks along with a couple of tracks are also introducing acoustic guitars into the music and when spoken word parts are utilized they also give the music more of a ritualistic feeling.
Arktotus plays a musical style that goes back to the classic and melodic era of Swedish black and death metal. The production sounds very professional while the lyrics cover Evil, Darkness, Hatred and Satanism themes
In my opinion Arktotus are a very great sounding melodic mixture of black and death metal and if you are a fan of those musical genres, you should check out this band. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "Plague" "Your Dictator" and "Wind of Death". 8 out of 10.