While we find ourselves in an underground that always seems welcome to tread much of the same territory continuously with as many pleasant experiences as there are lackluster ones, there is always room for a creation that really goes against the grain and subverts our expectations. Sometimes, such a thing comes in the form of an album that approaches the style at hand with a particular approach that feels quite captivating when paired with competency and raw talent. In other instances, such efforts come to us veiled in mystery, intrigue, and out-of-the-box thinking that the underground can always use more of. Taking a route seldom taken, Alukta accomplishes that and more within the mists of their debut album.

There’s thinking outside-of-the-box, and then there’s taking a path that you can well and truly call your own with very few other names in the entirety of the underground able to come even close to comparing their own sound with yours. I know not the mindset that Alukta had when crafting their debut effort, but it’s clear throughout every given moment of “Merok” that they sought to deliver a potent experience with more than a few ritualistic tendencies born out of an ethnic influence that takes great precedence throughout the songwriting, Alukta did more than just succeed at pulling off an eyebrow-raiser of an album. Across six tracks of intricate black-doom that are constantly ebbing and flowing within many of the same notions that the genre has become known for, yet it is here that Alukta offers tremendous proficiency in a sound that is not given that respect nearly often enough. Alongside the captivating ventures into rituals that serve as the very soul of what “Merok” seeks to bring to the table, the sheer craftsmanship at work here is astounding. Swirling in dense smoke that seeks to take you into an altogether different realm that we rarely get to visit, even rarer in the world of black-doom metal, the hand Alukta offers the listener is one doused in mysticism and heavily worn by the rivers of fate, yet to sail along these rivers is to see why Alukta is a name we simply must keep a sharp eye on.

This is the surprise from the shadows that this corner of the underground didn’t know it needed. It’s the kind of performance that lingers in your mind and offers you an experience that not many others can ever hope to get close to for one reason or another, and there are many reasons why “Merok” stands apart from the crowd. This is a tremendous start with all that goes on within this creation. A debut the likes of which a band can really make a name for themselves from, Alukta held nothing back and hit their mark in virtually every instance.

LISTEN to “Merok” on Bandcamp here.