Atarka is a dragon in "Magic: The Gathering" card game. The band with the same name hail from Birmingham, England, and are far more earthy in their game. The band are nothing like epic power metal, but a mixture of many things, both old and new.

For a big part Atarka's music sounds like a mixture of dark heavy metal with sludge stuff. Nothing very fast, but brooding british heavy metal (sometimes with you-know-what-kind-of guitar harmonies, yay) made to sound sludgy, but not very much in a punky way. In this early stage, the band aren't nothing as ugly as High On Fire or Melvins, for sure, but they have their British tinge for sure. Some of the riffs are powerful, and at worst okay, so not a bad achievement.

Atarka have fished in cold waters of black metal, too, especially heard on the first single 'Golden Snake' and also on 'Miasma', which feature fast tremolo picking (even though the prior sounds not far from Amon Amarth). The band utilizes beastly, throaty growl, which is effective. However, these two songs also pave the way to clean vocals which are a tad too much in metalcore side of the things; albeit rather able, more than regular "hit a note sounding like a robot" type in that genre, so no too much damage done. More metalcore-ish vocals are heard in shouted/growled styles, too. And it won't take long before the next "new thing" is introduced here: That goddamn post-metal guitaring, which so often sounds like nothing more but a balalaika stripped for all its briskness and joy! 'Nebula' is like an alloy of Triptykon taking a stroll with Manic Street Preachers, if it was a bit too wildly put. And while the music was steered towards it for some time now, 'Shadow of the King' is where the band go into full-on metalcore gear.

Epic 'Delacroix' is a fine ending to this album, going back to how the album started. Well, it all ends with a long stoner jam, which makes one think if the band will follow that track next time. Might also be a cover for as long as I know, though (this starts about after a 20-second silence). The production here is balanced and also punchy, especially the varying drumming. So the band are going for it. Their mixture of various influences isn't an easy one, at least I wouldn't mind of metalcore and post-whatever stuff was forgotten next time around. Maybe the sheer amount of influences mean that some of the songs aren't that catchy.

With 'Sleeping Giant', Atarka alloy older and newer things together. For me, it sounds too new at times, with genres that were old almost as soon they were born... If you're okay with all the genres they put together, I presume you could find a really fine album here.

Rating: 7- (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
03/17/2020 21:31