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Labyrinth of Hungry Ghosts

by Arkaik

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v.v
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v.v Arkaik have been a power-house in tech-death for quite some time now. Their latest album is as always a technical master-piece. But this time around, I find it more approachable and instantly enjoyable. Favorite track: To Summon Amoria.
Lorenzo
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Lorenzo Powerful technical death metal capturing dazzling songs that balance virtuosity with tangible groove. Intensely focused, as to be expected, Arkaik show off their instrumental prowess and progressive mindfulness quite well.

The bits of orchestral elements closer to the end of the album that integrate seamlessly are the best parts in my opinion.
Tom's Reviews
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Tom's Reviews You don't hear a lot of tech death that is as memorable as what Arkaik does, as there's technical proficiency coupled with a groove factor that is incredible sounding. Great album from start to finish 🤘 Favorite track: Labyrinth Of Hungry Ghosts.
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    • Apotheum Variant | Bone and Brown Merge w/ Black Splatter (100 copies worldwide)

    • Orphion Variant | Black inside Tan w/ Red Splatter (100 copies worldwide)

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    • Labyrinth Variant | Red and Brown with color Splatter (100 copies worldwide)

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1.
Descend From the bones of the netherworld enlivened Senses are heightened from within Subatomic pathways into the underworld Flame lit matrix All-consuming gateway to chasms beyond Enter into the abyss primordial Descending into obsidian realms Subconscious subterfuge parted like ashen waves Coiling inwards The flame lit the cavern Guiding the way A journey to bring he who treads upon its path Face to face with all that is hiding Into the shadow's crawl My voyage is sown Touching down in the lowest realm of lifeless forms The roots below The surviving will of astral form Lit from within They became inverted from the deeds of one Defaced Now a foul king fed by the bones of his fate Lost in the murky heart long since extinguished The Blade of the Sun sheathed in an amethyst throne Knowledge of the self sits silent for those with ears to hear The light of consciousness begins to appear Peering through prayers of fear Without a pure heart Inverting all into deception Birthing daemons that slither and crawl through their phantom minds Reflections of the trauma unhealed Buried are jewels that lay hidden inside you Lighting the path of the warrior and guiding the way 10,000 hungry ghosts longing to drink its illumination They became inverted by the deeds of one Defaced Now a foul king fed by the bones of his fate Seeking now the light of Gnosis Closing the chasm of the nihilistic gods This place of wickedness and gloom A labyrinth of coiling walls Now lit by the flaming sword of truth Revealed in the light are legions of cannibals Feeding on the abscesses of fear that fester and malign Insatiable appetite One must conquer their demons with courage A hero dies only once a coward dies a thousand times
2.
Shedding skin as blood turns to gold Writing on the walls etched in obsidian stone Writhing within the shadows In this abyss crawl the bleakest of creatures Wearing mirrors as masks, wild-eyed and slithering backward In the light of truth, they recede and recoil Casting tainted howls at the luminosity within the maze Their breath is of poison Their touch are strokes from rusted blades Their gaze encapsulates vivid reflections Of what lies within your primal deep Feeding upon their feeble hosts This realm of hungry ghosts Spreading from the hive, the opposite of alive t Chained to an altar of mazes Eating the fears of the hosts The lowest realm where the empty go All whispering the culling song A flock of desperate souls looking to feed Towards Cyrix they lurch in a fevered pitch Filled with brazen chasms of hurt greed As the choir of loss and grief begins to sing The Hoards attack as he swings with might Cyrix holds fast to the saber as they clash And the blows cut through them They shatter and coalesce into streams of vivid light With the Embers casting shadows on the walls Fangs drew like needles torn and swaying serpentine tongues At the center of the ascendant mind Cutting through the illusion Reaching into psychic flowing currents of morphogenetic pulse The careening expanse at the gates of the megalith Beyond the threshold of the collective sub-psyche Lost in the shadow cube All whispering the culling songs A flock of desperate souls looking to feed Towards Cyrix they lurch in a fevered pitch Filled with brazen chasms of hurt and need As the choir of loss and grief begin to sing In this labyrinth The scent of death and rot Rising up from the grave Treading the depths of the hungry ghosts Shedding skin as blood turns to gold Writing on the wall etched in obsidian stone Writhing within the shadows
3.
He who sought to hold the sword of clarity before he was cleansed Trapt in the center of the morphing labyrinth A heart impure lusting for power now Entombed and buried In a sarcophagus of hate, rage, and confusion Eater of fear, the progenitor of demon hoards Deceiver of himself For his form was merely a cage Cast in the fire of hate and fear Beyond the gates of amnesia In a maze of infinite corridors Shifting their shape Cyrix enters knowing the blade he carries Carving the flesh of the dead The walls seem to move on their own Out they crawl, the hoards of living dissolution Cryix sees the pain in their eyes so he slays them and leaves them to rest Enter the dark realms That which is in the heavens also lies within the earth Let the light of courage be your lantern A gleaming paradox seated on the throne of worth Phobius lurches forth to assail the light and it’s open form In the center of the maze there was the king of fear and pain His only language is to maim Raising the blade of light and truth Freeing the one enslaved from his aeonic curse
4.
They were all made of glass Entranced in their self indulgence Distorted figures bent backwards to please their masters A cesspool of Silver-tongues Fake poets of illusions drunk on their poisons Reprogrammed into confusion Asleep at the wheel right where they want you They stood before their reflection I looked up into their eyes and said Tell me why you are feeling this emptiness Ask yourself, do you remember why your in this place again Dark hands of the path stroking Fragile Beings of binded duality consciousness Shrouded in vanity, spewing contempt and distrust Lanterns swaying to the rhythm of the darkness Glowing before disfigured fractured monuments I am Light I am Will I am Present I am Still I will fight I will wield The blade of the sun piercing the sky Blinding those who are drawn to its shine Their new god, she was called Malevolex Sitting coiled around the throne Their disease left the temple in ruin They were plummeting into decadence Adorned in tormented gazes Culling their own mass virtual graves Blinding those drawn into its shine You are Death You are Hate You are the virus that you have created You will fight You will kill You are the terror you’ve fought to conceal
5.
The Kingdom of Pain Where flesh woven and licked clean A dancing masquerade lamenting playthings for their queen Truth inverted Fractured and obscene Seduced into a trance Lust and greed Malevolex reborn For ages she reigned They worshipped her to the tone of inverted choirs A matriarch reveling Drowning in haunted mires Unbalance reign in a queendom of severed skin A dark metropolis grasping for a taste of flesh Violent vanity left pregnant and ravenous With an infected mind In wayward opulence Drought of divine exaltation In a place with where the rivers of care were replaced By a rip current of unholy wicked lies A realm where truth is lost The Light reveals where harmony lies Wounded healer your time is now Unbalance reign in a queendom of severed skin A dark metropolis grasping for a taste of flesh Violent vanity left pregnant and ravenous With an infected mind In wayward opulence The rising tides of mental sovereignty Causing the prison walls to crumble Onward wielding the Blade A tale perennial The lunacy arraigned In brilliant light and righteous flame Dead inverted stairs Cracked and broken smiles Pulling you into caves of hollowed mortals Thrashing in delusions Led astray by the one they call Malevolex She who knew no wrath She splinters every path she crosses Her disease it feeds on her tenacious need Her other half was Amoria Lower levels must be harmonized Before you can ascend this place Flow up The way to ascend this inner world Lies in the space of the heart Darkness descends on the who often Toil in Malevolex’s shadow sanctum Drowning out the light and breath to the inner sun Pulling on the strings of ego and solipsism Free Yourself
6.
To carve out the map for the future travelers To reclaim the path of quantum sovereignty To stamp out their phantom fears And assemble the tribe of infinity The stone key of Pryra now within our grasp Calling back the hymn The ancient song from the moon of Amoria The alluring dance of Malevolex Her jagged shadows swayed in the halls of the immortal flame Pointing at the moon Her truth is the light that purges the darkness The summoning of the siren who showed the way long ago The greater mystery The twins of infinity The one who relinquishes the chains That bind the mind from the living astral plane The other one is the devouring mother Feeding at the whole totality of all being At the dawn of the eon she listens for the sound of her song Waking her up, calling down from above to below Reigning down, eclipsing the entire shadow realm Once in 10,000 years this ancient portal opens Out of the mouth of the feathered serpent comes her rival Ages have past The time has now come to return from insanity
7.
The storm at the sea A place where fleeting dreams bleed of humility A rift between discomfort and discovery Pulling me from reality I must beat the demons before they devour me I shall set them free The ocean dissolving my mind One lapse at a time Eroding the walls Taunting the gatekeepers of the deep I struggle to breath Tyrannical They sift their claws Into the subconscious neural core Like mechanical chains that pull you downward Beneath the sea are the spirits that feed on my memories Sitting perched beneath the sea discrete In their domain you can never escape Without the lost word Following me Following me every step I make Stay here too long Roll the dice you may lose everything They will betray The minds that indulge in fantasy I see them again and again Their desire is to deprecate me The ocean dissolving my mind One lapse at a time Eroding the walls Taunting the gatekeepers of the deep I struggle to breath No more will the tsunamis of the dark aeonic Whirlwind stop my will to live To become free, my vitality The vertical road from the trenches reaching From the primordial deep The ravaging sea, you’ve humble me again Ascend
8.
Riding the wings of black solar flares Masters of the dark laying waste to the children of the future They whispered in their head like deranged laughing ghosts They hold the spine and sip Directly from the innocent Their rending claws Attached to our perception like binding chains Hungry for your essence and longing to lap up your failure Pay them no mind The dead specters that laugh while you persevere and falter It was his expanding brilliance distilled from nobility Etched in the fabric of his essence and energy For in his nature was the path to grow up and out Excellence sprouting from composted fear and doubt Left hand path magi's hiding truth and inverting All they know in hidden symbols Diabolical magicians, polar opposite of the divine Malign, clinging to a rabid cult Dominating this dimension Feeding on opportunities to lie Know their wrath Cyrix raised his sword Aflame in righteous blaze Into the heart of the unfurling sun Casting sacred incantation spells Raving, hungry for souls Demons feeding on a pleroma of dying light They only way they survive Pulling from the absolute A metallurgic battle tome of exalted insight and blinding prayers Gazing in obsidian stone Traveling out of the void we go As the flame of truth pierced into it's deluded veil It ripped into the blackest of solar hearts Amoria could be heard singing in the skies above The siren song lifting my soul out of the void now risen Through layers of the vortex root Crawling like a newborn out from the ocean Up from the depths where the bleakest of trials Wag their tongues at your spirit We have been waiting for ourselves all along Living altars to the one true infinite spiraling all Microcosms of the perfect original Expanding brilliance distilled from nobility Etched in the fabric of our essence and energy And so sprung Cyrix through the ancient stargate grave Back into the heart realm from which he came

credits

released March 11, 2022

Jared Christianson - Vocals
Alex Haddad - Guitar
Nate Bigelow - Drums

Album concept and lyrics by Jared Christianson & Chance Strickland
Mixed by Mike Low
Mastered by Dave Otero at Flatline Audio
Drums Recorded and Engineered by Aaron Smith at Gossard Studios
Bass Guitar performed and recorded by Malcolm Pugh
Guitar Solo on 'To Summon Amoria" by Jack Fleigler
Guitar Solos on The Orphion Descent, Abode of the Deceiver & To Summon Amoria by Miguel Esparza
Flute Medicine on To Summon Amoria by Dallas Brown
Violin on To Summon Amoria by Juleitte Camille
Sound Design by Chance Strickland
Guitars Reamped by Phil Pluskota at Sonic Assault Studios
Additional sampling by Malcolm Pugh
Additional Writing Credits on The Orphion Descent, Abode of the Deceiver & To Summon Amoria by Cris Portugal
Artwork Collaboration Courtesy of Justin Abraham and Silvo Vieira

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Arkaik Santa Cruz, California

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