Review by: Oli Saunders
To call this a demo is correct but not the whole story. The band are a five piece (four piece on this demo) containing 3/4 of Lakmé, a band on hiatus (and possibly broken up for good) as their bassist has left to go travelling. Whilst it is sad that Lakmé have disbanded for the time being, Dakhma carry on in their footsteps to some extent, so this consolation can at least be taken.
Hailing from the Czech Republic, Dakhma play a modern form of screamo emo very much influenced by great jangly French bands such as Mihai Edrisch and Bokanovsky. They definitely do their own take on it though and it sounds great. Deep vocals screamed over fast guitars and drums with an occasional reduction in tempo to mix things up a bit. It’s a bit more basic than Lakmé to be honest, and not quite as chaotic. If pushed I would have to say it doesn’t sound as good, but that’s being unfair as it’s a demo and Lakmé really were fucking great. They’re clearly trying to play the style slightly differently and it works.
There are four songs on the CDr, plus an introduction. Track two ‘Od Vteriny Jedna’ is a highlight for me, sounds a lot like songs from the first Celeste LP. I love that guitar sound, lots of quick changes in pitch in time with the drum beats. This CDr is really DIY, coming in an envelope with artwork and song titles glued on. Enough with the comparisons with Lakmé, check this out for its own sake!
20th January 2009