Ch'ahom

***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. Those lurking in our subconscious and within the hidden cracks of our ego and which have often transmuted into madness and ravaged and derailed human society, culture and sanity and created some of the darkest and most chaotic eras of our history.