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| Dakhma |
One thing about Black Metal today is the American scene has really changed it up. There's a large, in my opinion, influence from Doom Metal which makes the American Black Metal fresh, new, and more palatable to my tastes.
Recently we did a vinyl review on Dakhma's Suna Kulto. Now it's time to learn more about the band. They were good enough to shed some light on their darkness.
Glacially Musical: Thank you for taking some time for me today.
Dakhma: Hey! Thanks for showing interest in us!
GM: Until recently, I would always tell people that I don't like Black Metal, but I realized that I just don't dig Scandinavian Black Metal. What is it about the American bands that's so different?
DK: Scandinavian Black Metal is very theatrical which is awesome and those musicians really have a more god like or diety-esque persona.
Most people here in the U.S. that we know that found their way in to black metal started out in dirty basement punk bands and progressively found their sound moving towards black metal, it makes it seem more relatable and dirty and usually has more hints of other genres in it.
GM: How did you find your sound?
DK: It was a collaboration really of everyone bringing in their own sound.
We worked on it for awhile, seeing what was going to mesh. We all started off in punk bands and noise and progressive random shit and we had our own influences which helped.
GM: There's a line from the song, "If you believe the world is a gift from god, why would you fight like hell to protect it." This line has really stuck with me. Can you tell me a little bit about that passage? (Note: did the best I could to call it back from memory and I screwed it up.)
DK: "I can't understand how you can claim to be a spiritual man if you believe God created the land why wouldn't you protect it with everything you have?" means that it's Bullshit for anyone who believes this world was created by their God to not also be an adamant environmentalist because they should treat the earth with respect because it is sacred.
GM: How did Dakhma come together?
DK: We all had been in bands before this Dylan and Claire and the original bassist John were all in Diane Rehm together but when that broke up we still wanted to play music.
Derek was looking to be in more serious bands so it came together very naturally and we started practicing and writing immediately. When John moved away to Detroit we stayed as a three price but it was very limiting to the way we wanted to progress with our sound.
So we asked Jimmy to join us who we had had the pleasure of touring with when he was in Old Soul.
GM: Pictures are worth a thousand words, but only when we understand them. Can you tell give me some of those words about the cover art?
DK: It's part of a peice by Edmund j Sullivan from 1933.
It kind of lines up with some lyrical themes of sun worship and we interpreted it as the hand of God controlling the sun which is very relevant to the concept behind coins and east.
GM: Why did you choose the name Dakhma?
DK: It comes from the Zoroastrian ritual of sky burial.
A dakhma is translated to tower of silence which is where they would bring the dead bodies to be eaten by birds and animals continuing the circle of life.
It was just a different idea of death than traditional western culture dictates and we just really liked the idea and the name even though there's a billion other bands with it out there.
GM: There's a limited grey splatter edition of the vinyl. Who chose that and what's the story behind that color?
DK: Well it's actually pretty funny. Cory from Halo of Flies had the idea of doing color and this was the cheapest color option that we liked, but it fit perfectly with the vinyl art looking like a galaxy.
GM: What are the five most important albums of all time?
DK: This is a tough question.
It's so different for every genre and we could probably spends hours discussing it between us especially because we love metal we love trap music we love pop and hip hop and grunge and post rock and punk.
In the car we listen to This Is A Long Drive by Modest Mouse a lot.
We listen to 1989 by Taylor Swift and To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar. Live Through This by Hole is hands down amazing.
Warrior by Ke$ha always gets us pumped and Leftover Crack makes a lot of appearances on the play lists.
So yea then there's Godspeed and hrsta and Russian Circles and our friends bands and I mean we are from Michigan so we gotta blare Cloud Rat a lot.
GM: What question should I have asked but didn't?
DK: Maybe future plans?
We are planning two splits right now with European bands. We'll be going on tour this late spring with Dawn Ray's from the UK and pretty much just writing and touring and recording as much as possible.
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