A progressive approach to sludge rooted in dark, doomy psychedelia. A methodical yet chaotic sound-scape boiling over with intense conviction. Astrakhan was founded in winter 2012 comprised of Vancouver music scene veterans. Through sharing the stage with acts such as Cynic, Cult of Luna, High on Fire, Cryptopsy, Weedeater, Helms Alee, Baptists, Subrosa, Bison, and Anciients, Astrakhan has grown and generated a short, but well receive catalogue that has acheived world wide attention. They are currently waiting to release a new LP in 2017.
RELEASES
Best Local Albums of 2016 - December Edition pg.13
All of the band's talent and vision are on display in the video for "Turgid Waters." The visuals are as good as anything… the perfect setting for the group's dual lead guitar attack and overlaid vocals, driving guttural riffs, and anvil-crumbling percussion, a fierce and crisp sonic attack.
“I have a new found respect for heavy music and know that someone has brought us a new sound and flavor that many will copy if they get to hear it and we need as many to hear it as possible so get this album and just be brought into hypnotic spacial sound of hope, the unknown, challenges and the dream of what there is to come one thousand years from now. One of the top 5 albums of 2016 right now for sure.”
“Reward In Purpose is powerful and MS-certified Grade-A. Strong debuts are usually a sign of great(er) things to come, so by that logic, let’s keep Astrakhan on Mr. Radar”
“Reward in Purpose marks the quartet’s debut record and it’s clear they’ve spent the last four years refining their sound and striking the red hot iron they worked to a glow following three EPs.”
“Reward In Purpose is definitely one of my favorite records of the year and an excellent debut for Astrakhan. I’m not even sure if it’s possible to top it. 5/5”
“Astrakhan from Vancouver play quite unique metal that is ferocious on the one hand and progressive on the other. It`s tight, modern, wayward, well thought out and strongly produced. A fine album for the modernists amongst us.”
“A journey on the fringe of imagination...”
“real good musicians with good ideas to compose, and this is their debut, which still have great potential to exploit. 9/10”
“The melodies are incendiary and leave ash in their wake. ”
“Channelling some classic heavy metal vibes, throwing in some punk, having fun with different timings, dabbling in stoner, and the execution of the two vocalists add that little something extra.”
“They may even have just the right gravitation to become the new emperors of the Progressive Sludge Metal alliance; and for one, I’m hoping so as “A Tapestry of Scabs and Skin” is remarkable. 10/10 Masterpiece.”
“Astrakhan is not an animal that will confuse you, but it is one that’ll keep you engrossed until the end of its existence. What these guys have done is almost create something new and that in itself is a feat worth taking note of. “
“Lots of trade-off guitar riffs, fantastic drumming by Jerome Brewer and great production by Jesse Gander (Anciients, 3 Inches of Blood) make this one of the best Canadian releases of the year. Expect bigger and better things from this band in the years to come. (Sean Palmerston) #6 top Canadian metal releases of 2014”
“The aural balance is captivating, if not astonishing for such a young band.”
“Western Canada is in the midst of quite a metal boom as of late, especially Vancouver, and Astrakhan is the latest to attract attention. Cut from the same cloth as Kylesa, [they] serve up a confident combination of sludge, prog, and garage rock on this two-song EP, swaggering and throttling one minute, capable of cool psychedelia the next. This is a very promising debut.”
Featured in Canadian Heavy Metal Documentary:
Heavy Metal Thunder
Play Song
We suffer, why suffer more?
Why bother?
Seething, blaming me.
Enclave:
Worship those in control.
Glass eyed cyclops:
Bringer of blight, purveyor unknown.
The sum unspeaking tongues, and voice that equal none
Amount to this god we’ve crafted from mud.
Awake yet we wait,
Enlivened we wander,
Rejecting the pure, and corroding the song.
Imbibe your cup awaits – incite the psalm.
We house, feed and grow.
Our voices sink and fold.
Quiet.
Voices sink and fold.
Words so holy flow.
Dry your eyes.
Play Song
A serpent drifts through water, it’s true form skewed by silt
Spewed forth in bursts of murky current
Hard dark scales.
An ancient leveler of egos, a tempest undisturbed
Cast aside in the wake of shadows.
This writhing figure embodies, fangs sharpened on the bones
Of the less aware.
I, intrinsically, am here only for my most basic need
And so easily am finding myself.
Fade away, dog shit
Straight line – sick of it.
Try to rest, lay to waste
Unrestrained, break the gray.
How do you fight for this
Dusk ends – gone
Are the days free to spend
Find a time; find a away.
Play Song
Dark daze
Lion on a crowd
Sight fixed
On his master’s throat
I’m no sorcerer
How can this be?
Unrepentant day
All your life so cold
Look around
Go your own
Sun Hazed
Shrouded in this cloak
Painted
by the shadow’s stroke
I’m no sorcerer
take this from me
Iridescent beast
Light this sage
Consecrate
Let yourself be low
knocked down on your knees
alone
I'm no sorcerer
light your sage
concentrate
light your sage
consecrate
leave this place
Play Song
Gathered here to lay to rest:
Our thought of malice and discontent.
Our word in stone: a libel unveiled.
A while now I'll rest.
Alive and awake.
Dressed in black, a summer's
Our sweating necks reflected in
A glimmering spade.
Spare from the wear,
Spare the cool touch of clay.
Cut by the blade
Infected it swells, and it pains me again
Left to erode
The shallowest grave
The hatchet buried
But still it is within our reach.
Can't forget or forgive
Can't forsake the foreseen
Deep in our heart hate lives.
We bury this hatchet
We cover the blade
Watch the ceremony fade
It was you who buried it here
It's my wound my burden to bare.
Play Song
Motions will be made when others lay.
The path untamed lays souls.
Hold stoic gaze, and steady pace
The other foot drops.
Lace break.
The first to fall.
Pipedream. Onwards we go.
Lace frayed – not unreachable.
All I'm left with:
Words to curse this.
Last cans opened, vacant eyes wander to the blade.
White fur, our friend: loved; skinned.
Stone toed, endless road
The first to fall
Burdened least of all.
Tied your rabbits in holes.
One final whispered oath.
Play Song
In reverse zoom from point of sand to floating moon.
In lunar dust.
Lesson learned in life, boiling the inside
Well without a trace, stuck in your side
Remains:
Quivering, sinking in, let the light bathe you.
The need to force
A microcosmic design.
To be perceived as one.
Calling of the drone
Becoming cold.
Forager of own, and seeker.
Turning preacher.
Softly states, all these years
How my size fails me now.
To be perceived as one
While thousands of millions collide
Ignorant to this.
Play Song
Wearing at his palm.
Molted skin stone.
Attrition.
Rough hands erode.
We can.
Regeneration.
It's Sisyphusian in some form.
Wearing your feeling fingers down.
Legacy his only contribution
To a world that's gone.
Fixed in his task.
Decades pass.
Stone pushes stone, relinquish control.
Life he lived means nothing if no one remains.
Guess his reward is purpose hands on the stone.
Play Song
I have seen his sideways plans
Waist band snaps
Surface
All is good in blood and gold
A Tapestry of Scabs and Skin
Sweet breath shiver
Less she claim blood is cold
So the tyrant
Much adieu for such a little man
Inheritor of the will of snakes
Divider reaching out his hand
Defiler belly of the fates
The Tyrant
Trace back to his birth
And the afterbirth was his purse
Conquered lands by age of ten
Twice wrong never again
At least that's how his side is told
Foam and lip's Edge
Inheritor of the will of snakes
Divider reaching out his hand
Defiler belly of the fates
The Tyrant
Play Song
Precious glittering harvest
Crystal sun
Fueling great ambitions
Act now
Time is finite
Bury them, bring up the wealth
Abudance
Send good news back home
Bask in the vastness
Blast after blast caverns collapse
Blast after blast diamonds to ash
Decades gone and the cargoes home
Fueling great ambitions
Silo run low
Unveil as the dust clears
Gasp at the emptiness
Diamonds to ash the hopeful at last
Receive their rewards
Open the hatch, show us your stash
This crown won't pay for itself
We should be kings now, sultans
Instead we have nothing
Wasted years for
Jetpack Woodshed
Diamonds
It traveled, it broke down
Worthless
Our debt only grows
Gathered up those who burn
Garbage food, toys unused
struggle by, settle in
Burrow
Play Song
The pressure crushes all but what can't be seen
Undress her stirring the seismic debris
Steel hands seek discovery
To plunge through the mantel and to swim in a sea beyond sea
In sea's beyond seas remain at ease
Now steady as the weight wages in at the seams
Deeper and deeper to be where no man has yet been
Fending off delirious dreams
To plunge through the mantel and to sink in a sea beyond sea
In sea's beyond seas remain at
Our glory now lies in our legend and our bodies are swallowed in sleep
Now sleep
Scrimshaw, ghosts of eden,
Underbelly's reef
Built on bones drawn downward
To the deep
Sulfur now rises as smoke as you push on your final gate
Revealed, unbarred
Push on 300 more feet and prepare for your chest to ache
Now you're inside her and she's taken the breath that you'll need
And you'll sleep.
Play Song
I wilt, I thrive
Pillarist not without strife
Beyond man, beyond time
Transcendent, mortal life
Hands tapping on the window
White prying eyes
This grand intrustion brings me to a
Violent stride
Face disappears in ripples
Glass melts aside
Skin will bake slow
Like fruit left on the vine
Lie low you're letting them raise
False confidence will fail in stride
What wisdom without time comes of age
But what good's time not spent at all
I wilt, I thrive pillar
Void of a bruise
Hold fast
Highest eyes
