Arkheth
Twelve Winter Moons Comes the Witches Brew

What you see and hear when you go into a forest, at night, alone and under the effects of a grand trip.

This album could be summed up just like that, no more, no less. But in any case, for all the people for whom this simple description isn't enough, I'll continue. But not before briefly explaining the origins of the band, which in this case is necessary (just to let you understand how they started before releasing the album I'm about to review).

The Arkheth, an Australian band (where else?), formerly did MeloBlack (and there were 3 members), but after 2010, all the members left the leader Tyraenos. Well, he didn't give a damn and converted it into a one-man band of experimental Black. And in 2018 comes the first manifestation of Arkheth's transformation: Twelve Winter Moons Comes the Witches Brew.

So, after this long preamble, the question arises spontaneously: what is 12MCTWB? A damn wizardly, labyrinthine, and sick trip. A journey of no return (or almost) in an astral world full of hallucinations, which in 41 minutes of duration (or more, depending on how many times you listen to it) completely throws your sense of time, orientation, measurement, and everything else into pigs.

The start of the initial "Trismegistus" immediately immerses you in the sparaflashy, esoteric, and impossible world described by Tyraenos (in addition to the beautiful artwork), among dissonant and improbable chords and riffs, varied and multifaceted keyboards (now fantasy and dreamy melodies, now an organ from a 30s horror movie), croaking and filtered voices (sometimes with a flange effect as annoying as it is adorable), epic and hallucinogenic blast beats, but that's certainly not where it ends.
The entire album has an arsenal of genius ideas ready to be shot in the listener's face, in all 5 songs of the batch. I don't want to spoil anything, but for sure, the best for me is only one:
That.
Damn.
SAXOPHONE.
I admit, in reality, it's not really a predominant instrument because it's played by a guest (a certain Glen Wholohan), but the use made of it is truly stunning, sometimes melodic and dreamy (as in the finale of "Dark Energy Equilibrium") sometimes cacophonic and evil (like the beginning of "The Fool Who Persists in His Folly", which seems to come directly from the grimiest and most destructive Naked City), and other times even soloistic and acrobatic (as in the already mentioned "The Fool Who Persists in His Folly").

Another major strength of the album is the lyrics, so absurd, unhealthy, and hallucinatory that I might have written them myself, just consider the third verse (also repeated in the finale) of "Where Nameless Ghouls Weep" (which apparently only I noticed as a jab at Ghost):
"Jump into the swamp with me,
I'm the Saint of the Damned
So vile and so filthy, you're no regular man".

Holy Christ.
This album is so absurd it can't belong to this dimension, and when you listen to it, you end up in its very realm, becoming a witness to the evil and twisted absurdities that populate it: flaming cauldrons that make their own light, two-headed witches with fluorescent eyes, towering trees that blend with multicolored clouds, lightning bolts that scatter across the scene and change shape continuously, and much more.

There's nothing more to add. GO BLAST IT