INSECT ARK (USA) – ‘Raw Blood Singing’ CD Digipack

The outer realms of avant-Metal, psych-Doom, and experimental Goth intersect here, but INSECT ARK fiercely refuses the trappings of simple genre categorization. The band weave a lush, bleak, vast and expansive landscape as they move from whispers of synth to a monstrous wall-of-sound via Schechter’s blistering lap steel playing, diabolical bass-work and the mammoth, searing power of Wyskida’s drums. The album title is deeply rooted in the concept of evolution – on both a human and a universal scale – stories of physical beings bound by equal parts unchangeable matter and malleable, shape-shifting energy. The music, too, has evolved beyond INSECT ARK’s origin as an instrumental band, adding for the first-time the deep honeyed poison of Schechter’s vocals. Showing a penchant for crafting haunted and memorable melodies, the contrast of her smoky voice with the spare, brutal music feels both uncomfortably intimate and icy cold.