Khors

Ukrainian band Khors was formed by Khorus (bass) in 2004. Counting on board some ex-members of Nokturnal Mortum such as Saturious (keys) and Wortherax (guitars) as guest musicians. Khorus was formerly in Astro Faes just like his drummer Khaoth. Helg (Runes of Dianceht) takes care of the vocals and guitars while being backed by Nort. The band describes itself as "non-political pagan dark black metal with a healthy share of patriotism". Good thing as I, for one, is really not into those political / neo-Nazis etc&type of black metal at all! The music Khors is playing can be considered as melodic / symphonic black metal. It goes down very easily. I personally found the vocals a bit forced but the whispering/ rough ones used on the closing track (The Abyss) were excellent though. Mid to fast paced compositions with kicking drums, nice epic key boards, frequent guitar solos, crushing riffs vs. clean arpeggios, some piano parts and, once and a while, a bit of a folksy tone is being thrown in. The booklet is all made of blue hues, with scenic pictures, which is cool. I found a couple tracks were standing out and they are: Misery, a darker song and the more melodic instrumental simply called Whispers.

All in all, Cold is a nice black metal album but perhaps a bit too soft in the melodic/ symphonic style.

by Shadow