Ukraine is a country that can be said as a true cradle for culture, because it played a key since role in Eurasian cultural events, as the spread of the Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages, Indo-European migrations, and the domestication of the horse. This is the main reason for their resistance against Putin’s invasion (again, this guy and his supporters are a bunch of assholes!): to preserve their culture (no matter the fake excuses given for the war). And such multicultural trait can be heard on “Secrets of Ancient Gods”, the second album of the quartet ARHAT.

As a second full-length, too much is expected from it, so it depicts a form of Groove Metal mixed with influences from Melodic Death Metal, Death Metal and full of ethnic traces. It’s oppressive and violent, but filled with excellent instrumental arrangements and contrasts on the vocals between grunts and screamed tunes, and the Middle East touches give a different taste to their music. Let’s try to resume this analysis in a shorter form: it’s an excellent release!

The quartet worked with Dmitry Kim (mixing, mastering) and Oleksandr Chernikov (reamping), creating a massive and defined sonority that binds together the needed distorted and aggressive appeal with a clean approach. It means that it’s brutal and sharp, but in a way that anyone can understand what’s being expressed, but in a way that’s similar to Death Metal and not to the greasy sonorities used by many Groove Metal acts. And the artwork of for the cover created by Viktor Gudkov is amazing, and to give a different taste, here are the  additional vocals of Oleksii Syrota (from VORACITY) on “Symbols” and Dmytro Moskalenko (from VIOLATERESS) on “The Great Unknown” (both songs from their previous Singles, here rearranged with some different instrumental touches from ethnic instruments).

All the songs of “Secrets of the Ancient Gods” are amazing, and depicts a mature band that knows what they want from their music. But “Abyss of Flame” (with its clear Melodic Death Metal traces in some moments, with excellent bass guitar and drums parts), “Karnak” (another moment where Groove Metal and Death Metal align, with excellent breakdowns and massive guitar riffs and arrangements), “Arcana XVI” (a grandiose and slower song with clean ethnic touches, with excellent grunts and screams), “Symbols” (the contrasts between the vocals is great during this brutal and sharp song), “Wheel of Fate” (this one is plenty of ethnic elements mixing with intense Groove Metal and Death Metal touches), “The Great Unknown” (great brutal ethnic ambiences, and sharp hooks can be heard), and “Shlyah Do Prozrinnya”.

The listeners can be sure of one thing: after hearing “Secrets of the Ancient Gods”, people will become fans of ARHAT.