Review: Këkht Aräkh – Morning Star

April 3, 2026

When trendy hipsters and KVLT elitists go to war over one band

I have to admit: for how much I enjoy metal music, warts and all, I’d be lying if I said it’s a pleasant experience, at least online. The various woes and maladies that social media has inflicted upon humanity are well-documented and known to anyone with a smartphone, and in the world of metal it’s become especially obnoxious. From profoundly stupid meatheads at best and Nazi scum at worst, nowadays any idiot with a webcam and free-trial editing software can make slop videos whining and moaning while claiming to be a tough boy, or more commonly, anyone can create a spam account and pester comment sections at large.

I open with this admittedly tiring rant (I’m not the first to point out how insufferable metalheads can be online) because this particular project I’m reviewing today is something of a catalyst for the worst impulses by terminally online dorks with way too much free time. Këkht Aräkh is a black metal project—more on that later—that has gained a lot of traction in the last half-decade. Founded and masterminded by an Ukrainian expat currently living in Germany simply known as The Crying Orc aka Dmitry, Këkht Aräkh first made it onto the scene as what could’ve been another unremarkable, raw black metal bedroom project that briefly popped out on Bandcamp’s home page in the preamble and later throes of the COVID pandemic. However, between that first record and now memed sophomore album, the project took on a very interesting path.

Full disclosure, I’m one of the “betrayers” that likes Këkht Aräkh. Their debut, Night & Love, while a bit standard was a genuinely well-done record of traditional raw black metal and dark ambient with an appropriately depressive edge. The sophomore record, Pale Swordsman, with the widely memed cover art featuring Dmitry holding a sword and a flower and posing in a way you can’t tell if he has very thick corpse paint or sunglasses, was something of a dark horse that mixed the aforementioned raw and depressive black metal with goth post-punk sensibilities, a path that Dmitry continued through a number of standalone singles; while many metalheads appreciate this project and it even caught non-metalheads (to the point Këkht Aräkh is now signed to Sacred Bones Records), this project has joined Deafheaven, Witch Club Satan and Ghost at being the “TRVE KVLT” defense force’s public enemy number one.

That sophomore record came out in 2021 and after 5 years of so much whining, bitching, moaning and a barrage of some of the most unfunny, dogshit memes imaginable, Këkht Aräkh have finally released their long-gestating third record simply titled Morning Star.

I’ll start by saying outright that Këkht Aräkh is black metal, despite Neill Jameson’s or whomever else’s grunting. Këkht Aräkh is indeed a black metal project at the end of the day, they were back when they debuted and they certainly continue to be with this new record even with their distinct bells and whistles. As stated earlier, Këkht Aräkh’s distinct sound is basically raw and depressive black metal with ambient, goth and now folky influences peppered throughout this new record. The production is very raw and muffled, even on the cleaner sections it sounds kinda bad, but in a good way, if that makes sense. Black metal often gets derision and mockery for the various types of raw and shitty production quality, whether as an aesthetic choice or to disguise utter musical incompetence—see every Greek, Polish and French NSBM band out there—but in the case of Këkht Aräkh it works as an aesthetic choice. It reminds me of the earlier albums of his label-mates, Molchat Doma, the Belarusian post-punk and coldwave trio; both bands make use of a vintage and primitive production to properly convey the emotion of the music. Different emotions for sure, but same overall idea and execution.

Musically, Këkht Aräkh are still playing their style of choice; however, this new record veers more into the goth and ambient leanings of the previous record and even incorporates elements of folk music. The bulk of the record is very mellow, with these goth folk ballads played with clean tones and/or acoustic guitars, relaxed drumming and what sounds like a combination of synths and strings plus various samples. While Këkht Aräkh has primarily been a solo endeavor, for this record, Dmitry brought some interesting guests, the most notable being Swedish rapper and producer Bladee. Along with his duet with Dmitry on “Eternal Martyr,” the pair also cowrote the lyrics. The other guests are also off-kilter, Jonathan of Spira Me, Vanskapth and Olycka plays drums on the whole album, and electronic ambient producer VS–55/Spöke and techno producer Varg2™ provide samples to complement Dmitry’s synths. The unorthodox guests on this record really enhance the non-black metal elements and the end result is a record that feels very pastoral despite being coated in a raw production sound and analog electronics.

However, while the bulk of this record is very enjoyable and some of its more esoteric moments manage to bring something fresh to the over-trodden path of raw black metal, I was left a bit cold in the end; on one hand, Dmitry the Crying Orc definitely succeeded at creating a moody and atmospheric record that’s perfect to vibe to, on the other hand it feels like more of the same from the previous records. Because of the stronger emphasis on non-black metal parts, it feels a bit disjointed in the sense that each purely black metal track offsets the atmospheric ballads with clean singing. Granted, there is good pacing and none of the songs overstay their welcome which is impressive for a 17 track, 50-minute long record. Overall, the album is cohesive but still jarring, more so if you’re really vibing with the mellower tracks.

Photo by Duran Levinson

As a whole I can say I still like Këkht Aräkh because they do bring a unique take on the most overdone style of black metal. While I’ll never side with losers who subscribe to a hyperbolic and posturing moron like Justin Horval, I do feel like this record while interesting didn’t hit as hard as Pale Swordsman did, but I do hope whatever Dmitry does next is more enjoyable.