Alda
Tahoma

The Alda have all the characteristics to be part of the American black metal scene of recent years, which has seen bands sprouting like mushrooms, often coming from backgrounds not strictly tied to metal, mixing elements of the Scandinavian school with post-rock, shoegaze, etc. A scene that quickly became saturated, as often happens with such phenomena in heavy music, leaving, in my opinion, not many projects truly noteworthy in the long run.

“Tahoma” at first listen might seem part of this latter category. It is a fundamentally formulaic album, revolving around simple and not very varied solutions, where very melodic black metal meets “naturalistic” folk atmospheres. On paper, therefore, an album like many others.

But not so.

“Tahoma” lives with a muffled, lo-fi sound as the black metal tradition requires, but without the acidity, harshness, and coldness that distinguishes most productions of the genre. This soft sound, combined with a pronounced sense of melody, evocative and never garish folk passages accompanied by warm and seductive vocals, gives this album a very particular color, a spring-like flavor I had never heard in a black metal album. It is a strictly subjective judgment, but listening to this album brings me peace, tranquility, completely counter-trend with the genre.

The aforementioned melodies are the other great strength of these Americans, not particularly elaborate but at the same time very recognizable, evocative, and emotional. The rhythmic section that supports them never exceeds in particular technicalities, oscillating between classic blast beats, punk tempos that recall the classics of crust, slowdowns where the pathos increases enormously, all the while remaining in the background privileging the harmonic aspect.

Tahoma is an album unique in its genre for me, even though—as already stated at the beginning of the review—it may seem like just another album in an already saturated movement. Simple, without too many pretensions, but able to go straight to the heart.