Рецензии
Metalteamuk "Return To Abandoned"
2011.06.11
More might and mysticism from the Ukrainian wastelands and frankly I cannot get enough of this at the moment. As mentioned in last months review of Quintessence Mystica there is a lot of magic flowing through the veins of the incestuous bands formidably cleaving their way out the area. We may never get the chance to see any of these groups live but they are keeping us entertained with lots of albums and indeed if were to catch them live a certain spark may well be taken and the air of mystery could be negated. If you wanted to take a guess at what other projects members of this band had been involved in you would probably get a few right. Drummer Kharoth and bassist Khorus have both served in Astrofaes and the former also did time in Nokturnal Mortum and Hate Forest amongst others. The group have recently lost founding vocalist Helg and he has been replaced by Jurgis who it would surprisingly seem has not been in any other bands. One piece of information I cannot find is which of the vocalists appears on this release, as Helg only left in September due to family commitments and with no animosity I am assuming it is he that appears here.
Apparently Khors is the Slavic god of the sun and light and this is the group’s 4th album. The cover art of their previous ones to me look very basic and I wonder how they have evolved musically as this is an incredibly mature album and has much better artwork! After ‘The Arrival’ a brief mystical sounding keyboard intro we plunge into ‘Lost Threads’ and are immersed into a highly melodic and frost laden musical cavalcade complete with shrieking guitar cadences and hoary barbarous vocals. The keyboards make up a huge part of the album as a whole and are really effectively utilised, some of the work with them is incredibly retro sounding and there could well be comparison to another band even at this early stage of the album. Acoustic guitar work and flailing solos are thrown in and there is a strong progressive flow reminiscent of certain Norsemen bristling through this. With the cleave of ‘Asgard’s Shining’ it would appear that the band are quite happy embracing legends of the Norse too and this is a battle march of a number that takes no prisoners as it romps forth with a heathen feudal passion flowing through its veins. The keyboard parts that sinuously weave their way into the songs like roots splitting the soil (perhaps in line with the album cover) should by now have you thinking of Borknagar. The classic use of them on ‘Song Of The Void’ sounds like the band have found some old machine left over from the 70’s, done a patch up job and cranked it into life, and it sounds wonderful. Whether it is the Hammond or Moog button that is hit this breathes a feel of errant psychedelia into the music and makes it all the more infectious. As ‘The Seas Burn Of Omnipotence’ gears up I at first thought it was possibly going to roll into Hawkwind classic ‘Spirit Of The age,’ musically at times this sort of suggests it is going to completely wig out in this fashion but it keeps things metal and injects another fist pumping rhythm and passage of guttural vocals into things. However you really do not know what is quite around the corner, this one for instance goes into a shimmering, shoe-gazing passage of lush acoustic bridge work, beautifully and skilfully mesmerising the listener until the songs conclusion.
There is a hell of a lot to like in this album and I like it a hell of a lot. That might seem like a bit of a clichйd way to sum things up but the proof is very much in the listening and I can happily now add Khors to the list of all the other bands from The Ukraine I want to explore to their fullest extent. If you are looking for a heavyset dose of blackened, progressive heathenism you will find no fault here.
Pete Woods
Apparently Khors is the Slavic god of the sun and light and this is the group’s 4th album. The cover art of their previous ones to me look very basic and I wonder how they have evolved musically as this is an incredibly mature album and has much better artwork! After ‘The Arrival’ a brief mystical sounding keyboard intro we plunge into ‘Lost Threads’ and are immersed into a highly melodic and frost laden musical cavalcade complete with shrieking guitar cadences and hoary barbarous vocals. The keyboards make up a huge part of the album as a whole and are really effectively utilised, some of the work with them is incredibly retro sounding and there could well be comparison to another band even at this early stage of the album. Acoustic guitar work and flailing solos are thrown in and there is a strong progressive flow reminiscent of certain Norsemen bristling through this. With the cleave of ‘Asgard’s Shining’ it would appear that the band are quite happy embracing legends of the Norse too and this is a battle march of a number that takes no prisoners as it romps forth with a heathen feudal passion flowing through its veins. The keyboard parts that sinuously weave their way into the songs like roots splitting the soil (perhaps in line with the album cover) should by now have you thinking of Borknagar. The classic use of them on ‘Song Of The Void’ sounds like the band have found some old machine left over from the 70’s, done a patch up job and cranked it into life, and it sounds wonderful. Whether it is the Hammond or Moog button that is hit this breathes a feel of errant psychedelia into the music and makes it all the more infectious. As ‘The Seas Burn Of Omnipotence’ gears up I at first thought it was possibly going to roll into Hawkwind classic ‘Spirit Of The age,’ musically at times this sort of suggests it is going to completely wig out in this fashion but it keeps things metal and injects another fist pumping rhythm and passage of guttural vocals into things. However you really do not know what is quite around the corner, this one for instance goes into a shimmering, shoe-gazing passage of lush acoustic bridge work, beautifully and skilfully mesmerising the listener until the songs conclusion.
There is a hell of a lot to like in this album and I like it a hell of a lot. That might seem like a bit of a clichйd way to sum things up but the proof is very much in the listening and I can happily now add Khors to the list of all the other bands from The Ukraine I want to explore to their fullest extent. If you are looking for a heavyset dose of blackened, progressive heathenism you will find no fault here.
Pete Woods