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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