“You board a soulless tornado.”
When I think back on my most beloved albums at the end of each year, the ones that seem to stick with me more firmly are the ones that took me by surprise. Sure, a fantastic album from an established band can almost always secure a high spot and scratch a particular itch, but there’s something so uniquely satisfying about falling headfirst into an entirely new band and having them take over your world for a while. Back in 2021, that band for me was Karmanjakah. While the Swedish unit have been putting out music since all the way back 2016, it wasn’t until 2021 that the band saw the release of their debut LP, A Book About Itself.
What immediately entranced me about Karmanjakah was their unique blend of influences. Oftentimes evoking a style akin to if you put the instrumental unit of Vildhjarta in a room with a soaring, melodic post-hardcore vocalist, it’s a combination of sounds that, on paper, should not work nearly as well as they do. However, from the moment I first heard A Book About Itself, I knew there was something special about this band – I just hoped whatever came next arrived sooner than the LP seemed to.
So, here we are, just two short years later with Ancient Skills, a four-track release that the band have been building up to and teasing for some time, be that through teaser tracks released over the recent months, or studio snippets on social media beyond that. Truthfully, in my mind, all I needed Ancient Skills to be was more Karmanjakah – and that’s exactly what I got. Wildly frenetic riffs; tight, groovy percussion; and gorgeous vocal composition permeate the 21-minute runtime of Karmanjakah’s latest outing, and, just like their debut LP, it makes for an awe-inspiring and wildly fun listen.
One notable change between Ancient Skills and A Book About Itself, is the lack of unclean vocals of any kind. They admittedly weren’t all that common across the LP, but I feel that the focus here on striking the balance between the melodicism present in the vocals, and the frenetic chaos found in the instrumental work, allowing each to provide juxtaposition to one another, grants the EP a greater sense of knowing in identity. There is no greater evidence of this sense of refinement in that balance than is closing track “Listening”, which sees Karmanjakah venture into the natures of their extremities, dancing between stank-facing chugs and groovy riffing; alongside spacious, serene clean guitars and ethereal vocals.
Each track here certainly embodies that mantra, though. Opener and lead single “Breathing” features the band’s trademark hyper-tech-but-somehow-repurposed-to-sound-uplifting riff style in droves, with the atmosphere cranked to 100. “Flying” follows suit, too, with some truly primal grooves among some of the most gorgeously serene synth and guitar work I’ve heard all year. Third track “Writing” further impresses, opening with one of my favourite guitar passages across the EP, combining staccato chugs with floating ambience and gliding leads sitting atop its groove-laden foundation.
With Ancient Skills, Karmanjakah have proven that my faith and passion that was evoked from their debut was not misplaced. They have crafted an EP that is equal measure serenity and primal, stank-facing groove, and have cemented their place as one of my favourite up-and-coming bands in the tech-metal world in the process.
8/10
Ancient Skills is due out this Friday, May 12th via self-release, and you can find pre-orders for the EP here.