SARKH are a German instrumental post-metal band, and Helios EP is four tracks named after things that exist outside: Zyklon (cyclone), Helios (the sun), Kanagawa (the Japanese bay), Cape Wrath (the northernmost point of mainland Scotland). The titles are a map. The music is the journey.
“Zyklon” opens with the energy the name implies, not chaotic, but driven, the kind of forward motion that instrumental post-rock achieves when it’s operating at the right tempo. It builds toward a peak that feels genuinely climactic rather than expected. “Helios” is the centrepiece, seven minutes of the band at their most expansive: slow, warm, the guitar work operating in registers that feel almost orchestral. It’s the track that makes the EP’s title make sense, this is music that sounds like something large and constant overhead.
“Kanagawa” shifts register again, leaning into the post-metal side of the band’s sound with more low-end weight and a guitar tone that sits closer to the chest. “Cape Wrath” closes the record as the title suggests, stark, windswept, a little desolate, ending on a note that doesn’t resolve so much as recede. Four tracks is the right length. SARKH understand what they’re doing and they don’t overstay.
Clean and detailed production, the kind of clarity that instrumental music requires, where every instrument needs to be audible without anything dominating. The guitar tones shift between the tracks: warmer and more sustained on “Helios”, heavier and more distorted on “Kanagawa”, with “Cape Wrath” finding a middle ground that serves the ending well. The mix has room in it, which is the right choice for music that uses space as a structural element.
Standout tracks: Helios, Zyklon
One of the better instrumental EPs of 2023 from a band that deserves more attention outside Germany.
