ALBUM REVIEW: Awakening From Dukkha – Nine Treasures

Having been around for over a decade, NINE TREASURES have a plenty of songs to choose from to exemplify their work. With several albums worth of material and a ground breaking career behind them, Awakening From Dukkha is a compilation of some of the best of their music gathered together.

Kicking off, Black Heart is such a kickass start to this record and a clear benchmark as to what the band have to offer. The most raucous combination of western heavy metal and the melodic drive of traditional Mongolian instrumentation and vocals. Immediately captivating, you’ll instantly want to get up and move. Maintaining speed and energy Arvan Ald Guulin Honshoor is well placed to show that NINE TREASURES aren’t a one trick pony. As title track from their first record, it’s a good example of their early work and a classic point to start new listeners off on.

Fable of Mangas definitely feels like a smoulder rather than a raging fire, but again is a good example of the range the band has. It’s great to have a muted chug to sway yourself to and gives plenty of breaking room for the Mongolian melodies to overlay. That’s not to say that there’s not plenty of metal to sink your teeth into, and it’s still a classic tune. Going back to their earlier work again, Nomin Dalia is a short and sweet burst of curious eastern sounds to a western ear, and a delight on all accounts. Pulling together with excellent rhythms, it’s nicely paired with the smooth Tes River’s Hymn at this point in the record. Both employ different stylistic ideas, but tie them together with that central beat that connects the metal and the Mongolian musical ideas together.

Shifting into work past their 2013 and 2015 releases, Ten Years feels like the most mature tune so fat on the record, and has some of the more experimental ideas. You can really hear how much NINE TREASURES wanted to expand into untouched realms of sounds for both metal and Mongolian music, especially vocally. It’s very diverse and skilfully pulled together, something many fans enjoy and Ten Years tackles easily.

An unusual one if this is your first listen to NINE TREASURES, a completely instrumental pieces by the name of The Dream About Ancient City. It doesn’t loose any of it’s magic for being vocal-less, but showcases some more technical bass work. Equally, Praise For Fine Horse continues to be a classic with galloping thrash style energy with that bombastic folk heart.

NINE TREASURES have put together a real eclectic mix of their music on this record. The End Of The World has something of a classic rock feel to it, in sensibility if not sound, while Wisdom Eyes slaps big choruses and bouncing together with more heartfelt melodies. Bizarrely, this might be the right kind of tunes to introduce contemporary JPOP and KPOP fans to a heavier, more traditionally routed, eastern sound. Very accessible and catchy, this late stage in the compilation still has a lot going for it. There’s simply no filler on this record at all, as closing numbers The Stubborn and Three Years Old Warrior have as much energy as anything in the earlier part of the album. While there’s some years between these two tracks, they’re still some of the strongest of NINE TREASURES work out there.

If you’re new to NINE TREASURES, Awakening From Dukkha is a pretty excellent place to wet your appetites; this is a stomping juggernaut of some of their best work. Hearing how the band have crafted metal with traditional Mongolian melodies and managed to keep true to both styles without ever feeling like a gimmick is a delight. It’s a collection that takes the top tier music that NINE TREASURES have produced and blended them together superbly.

Rating: 7/10

Awakening From Dukha is set for release March 19th via self-release.

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