Chuck Schuldiner Project

Thursday, April 2, 2015

Khors - Ashes

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As I sit here on the plane to sunny Florida in order to celebrate a glorious pagan tradition that has since been re-appropriated (Perhaps rightly so) I figure, why not listen to some good old fashioned pagan black metal? While I'm still not entirely sure if Khors are pagans, I can certainly tell you that that they are damn good musicians. With synth heavy tacks that use blazing guitars and burbling vocals to drive their sound home, their new record Ashes is a memorable black metal tribute to the great old ones. Prepare to take the journey of a lifetime with a band who could very well rock your world.

Though Khors certainly pay heed to most black metal tropes they certainly have succeeded in honing their own specific sound. These tracks have a distinct flavor to them that asserts the fairly iconoclastic nature of bands in this genre. There is a crushing sense of confidence and dismal reality that guides you through songs like Garnet, even as minor key piano lines ring out on top, casting the listener into a coldhearted abyss. That being said, Ashes sees plenty of black metal bombast, with its fair share of exciting solos and images of 'riding hells stallions bareback and free' even as it fits within a much more somber and emotional context.


There is something strangely comforting about records like Ashes I think that they show us that even in the depths of chaos and despair we can still find a sense of hope and light. As the songs crash upon your ears like waves onto the shore its hard to deny the overarching power that this kind of music has. Sure it's often denied by peers and rivals, but Khors are turned onto something much deeper and more profound than most would dare romanticize about. What I'm trying to say is that Ashes is the sort of black metal that guides you to sublime salvation.

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