Band:	Arð
Album:	Untouched By Fire
Style:	Doom metal
Release date:	April 2024

01. Cursed To Nothing But Patience
02. Name Bestowed
03. Hefenfelth
04. He Saw Nine Winters
05. Beset By Weapons
06. Casket Of Dust

Arð is a Northumbrian project masterminded by Mark Deeks (also of Winterfylleth), who is a piano teacher, author, and a choir arranger and conductor, among other things. The band’s music is described as ‘monastic doom’. Keep reading to find out what this means.

When Arð began back in 2019, it was hard to expect either that the band would soon be noticed by the likes of The Guardian and the BBC, or that the first press of the debut album, Take Up My Bones, would sell out before it would even hit the stores. And let’s not forget that it got the bronze medal in the doom metal category of 2022’s Metal Storm Awards by you, our users. So, the question is: does Untouched By Fire doom as hard as its predecessor?

Well, ‘hard’ is kind of the wrong word to use for the music of Arð, since their doom metal is rich in layers, with lush orchestration, and very melodic. The term ‘monastic doom’ that they have coined is very fitting, with all the monk-like choirs, the omnipresence of the piano, and the solemn and catanyctic atmosphere. In general, it feels that the piano is the foundation for all songs, and the other instruments build upon it, with Robina Huy’s cello acting as if it has come down from the heavens only to appear in this album, while special mention should be made to Beverley Palin’s pipes on “Beset By Weapons”. The songs are better described as hymns due to their ecclesiastic character, and the music sounds like a combination of Skepticism and Kauan, with a touch of My Dying Bride. There are times when I get the feeling that I am listening to melodic death doom without growls.

As far as the theme is concerned, Arð continue to explore the culture and history of Northumbria. While Take Up My Bones followed the relics of Saint Cuthbert (634-687), Untouched By Fire tells the tale of King Oswald (604-642), who brought the two Northumbrian kingdoms of Bernicia and Deira once again under a single ruler. It’s always welcome to have a fascinating and original story, but as a talented reviewer around these parts claims, “the sign of good music is the ability to both convey and trigger emotion”.

And emotion this album does trigger and convey in abundance, and it does so in an almost transcendent manner. I could easily make a case of how doom metal is capable of actually lifting someone’s spirits while still sounding depressive (it certainly has that effect on me), but Mark Deeks, Kostas Panagiotou of Pantheïst and Don Zaros of Evoken have already presented compelling arguments on the matter in this video. If I wanted to voice some criticism, I’d say that Untouched By Fire is largely a one-dimensional slow burn, but doom metal is expected to be like this; otherwise we’d listen to tech-death. In my opinion, its liturgical atmosphere, its evocative melodies, and its sombre beauty are sure to touch everyone somehow.

If music can be reverence, then this is what it sounds like.

"Prepare for reprisal
Cursed to nothing but patience"