Exclusive Premiere: Dark Helm Get Introspective with ‘Akasha’ Music Video

If you’ve heard of albums that take years and years of revision, poring over and finesse, know that Pune metallers Dark Helm took about six years working on crafting their best music video for the song “Akasha.”

Taken from their 2018 album Hymnus de Antitheist — which followed 2011 record Persepolis after several years in the making — the band tells us “Akasha” was one of the first tracks written for the record, which sets Arabian, Middle Eastern and Indian sonic elements to defiant modern metal. Knowing that this track encapsulated their sound well, the band says they stuck with the plan to release a video for “Akasha.” The band adds, “After two different music video shoots and a few lyric videos, we still weren’t sure that the we were doing justice to the song. So we scrapped them. Then the album happened and we just felt that the song deserved a music video. So this time we made sure we did things right from the get go. We assembled a production team, drew up budgets, chose a director, did our due diligence and went about it with the right prep.”

Directed by Abhishek Gunaratnam and aided by Dark Helm’s guitarist Mohanish Deshmukh, the video intersperses shots of the band stomping around, performing in a dark room alongside visuals of the bright outdoors, as a woman dressed in white wanders open fields. “Akasha” is about the dichotomy of faith and reason, and the band wanted the music video to complement the message. “One may look for easy answers to pacify oneself through religious dogma, someone else may look for truth through an endless and tireless study of self and science. That endless search is what we’ve tried to portray in the video through the wandering woman.”

Dark Helm remains keen on continuing to promote Hymnus de Antitheist even though they admit they’re missing the chance to perform more tracks off the album on stage, as live gigs have been put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic. The band adds, “There are no plans of new material for the year at the moment but one never knows when something might just push us into creating something.”

Watch the video for “Akasha” below. Stream ‘Hymnus de Antitheist’ here.