Review SHAKHTYOR “Simulacron”

Christian Müller, Nils Langbehn, and Christian Herzog. That’s Shakhtyor, a three-piece from Hamburg in northern Germany. But who exactly are these guys, and what do they bring to the table?

The band has been around since 2009, releasing their self-titled debut in 2012. Shakhtyor have never been the type to flood the market with new material, which makes Simulacron only their third full-length studio album.

Pinning down their sound is no easy task. The trio pulls from several different corners of the heavy music spectrum, weaving those influences into a sonic landscape that feels both crushing and strangely fragile at times.

First things first: Simulacron is mainly an instrumental record. The spoken words appear as samples on “Das Sechste Siegel.” and some growls during the closer “Electric H”. Beyond that, the album thrives on an impressive range of ideas and textures. Doom-laden passages collide with whispered voices, creating an unsettling atmosphere. It feels like listening to loneliness itself as it slowly settles over the human soul, growing heavier until there’s no escape. By the closing stretch, that weight takes shape in the song’s pounding rhythms, dragging everything deeper into the dark.

“Alone” keeps things bleak and uneasy. And if you’re hoping for a sudden change of mood afterward, “Wolfmannsgehau” won’t offer much relief. Despite clocking in at over ten minutes, the track holds together with a tight sense of purpose. Doom-heavy sections meet psychedelic detours and punishing riffs that gradually burrow their way into your head.

That persistent sense of unease is a big part of what makes Simulacron so hard to walk away from. The icy emotional terrain of “Letzte Schleuse” pulls you in, and the following “Electric H” keeps you locked inside the album’s strange orbit. Hitting stop feels almost beside the point.

With Simulacron, Shakhtyor deliver a record that grabs your attention from the opening moments while leaving you unsettled. This is a carefully curated blend of doom metal, sludge, black and death metal, threaded through with synth passages and post-metal excursions. The result is a hulking sonic monolith that’s impossible to ignore—and one you won’t necessarily want to escape from.