***German ritualistic black/death metal warlords Ch'ahom and Sentient Ruin unleash a career-encompassing compilation of the band's entire discography to this day, spanning all the band's long sold out demo tapes from 2016 to 2021, repackaged and remastered by Will Killingsworth at Dead Air Studios into a glorious one-hour long onslaught of total sonic savagery. This vast and comprehensive restored retrospective both anticipates Ch'ahom's new era forthcoming (with the imminent release of their first official EP and first official full-length album which will follow shortly thereafter) and revisits the origins and existence so far of one of the most barbaric and animalistic entities to have appeared in the German extreme metal underground in recent years. The eighteen bludgeoning tracks here presented show us the band developing their sound and concept over a five-year span of cryptic obscurity, reworking the legendary warcraft of bestial black/death/grind legends like Beherit, Sadogoat, Blasphemy, Sarcófago and Proclamation into an occult and esoteric canvas exploring exotic ancient war cults and death rituals from pre-Columbian South and Central America. The end result is a gruesome terrorscape in which ancient visions of violence, ritualism, mysticism and bloodshed are joined into a ruthless aural assault of total black/death chaos and destruction. The feral aura and lawless primitivism seen on these tracks is further exalted by a raw and blown out production quality which has given a unique and appropriate character to the music through a methodic approach clearly descended from a punk and DIY culture which has vastly enhanced and...
CD $12.00
04/05/2024
***Hallucinatory prog-infested bestial black/death metal horde Ch'ahom unchain absolute chaos-wielding sorcery with their debut full-length album Knots of Abhorrence, a triumphant arrival point of sorts testifying a long and transformative sonic journey started almost a decade ago, and now finally reaching its pinnacle and absolute consecration. Having started as far back as 2015 and existed for many years as a raw, bestial obscure war cult following in the steps of bands like Sadogoat, Blasphemy, Beherit, and Proclamation, in recent times Ch'ahom have been undergoing an expansive metamorphosis of their sound and songwriting, now juxtaposing a crisp and dense production quality to their primeval terrorscape, that exalts new elements incorporated from early 90's technical death metal in the vein of Timeghoul and Demilich, as well as from 70's UK prog influences derived from the band's peculiar interest in acts like Yes, Camel and Genesis. Ch'ahom's long running mesoamerican concept about pre-columbian rituals and death cults has also conversely benefitted from this recent sonic transfiguration, with their staple tribal contaminations and ornamental interludes (written and performed by the members themselves with traditional instruments) now assuming a whole new presence against the backdrop of the album's devastating scope and vision. Across it's sprawling forty-plus minutes and five dismal tracks, Knots of Abhorrence unfolds a pure masterclass of rare violence, atmosphere and intensity, carrying the listener across a gruesome wormhole and into another dimension of history's past where violence, carnage, bloodshed, magic and ritualism incarnate the sum of mankind's biggest and most ancestral fears....
CD $13.85
12/08/2023
LP $23.95
12/08/2023