Khlyst – Chaos is My Name
Hydra Head Records – HYH-114 – October 24, 2006
By Nathan Pearce
Whoa! Just when you thought Hydra Head was stuck in that sub-sub-sub-genre called “thinking-man’s metal”, they start throwing black metal and THIS at us.
I’m only going to say this once, if you don’t like music made for the sake of art or art made for the sake of music, don’t even read any further. If you think music/art that reaches beyond the limits of anything even remotely resembling a genre or style is worth your time, read on.
Khlyst is a project featuring James Plotkin (
Phantomsmasher,
Khanate,
O.L.D., etc.) and Runhild Gammelsaeter (
Sunn 0))),
Thorr’s Hammer). The best I can describe this is a combination of the freaky, haunting atmospheres of
Khanate combined with some free-form jazz/metal hybrid bass-heavy instrumentation combined with Golem, from The Lord Of The Rings movies, on vocals. While the music doesn’t seek to strictly frighten the listener (like
Khanate), it still has its fair share of scary moments. The vocals are quite freaky, but for the most part the instrumentation (mostly just Plotkin on bass) backing the vocals is totally whacked!
I don’t know if you’ve ever heard a great jazz guitarist back a great solo jazz singer, but this is the nightmare version of that. Noise, feedback, some drums, and that crazy-ass bass guitar are all mixed in the pot with those sick vocals. If
Khanate is a beast slowly creeping up on you to rip your head off and lick your innards clean,
Khlyst is a beast that the pack left behind because they thought it was retarded, only to find out that one day the retarded beast will fulfill its sick fantasy of devouring all its next of kin.
Extreme art for music lovers; extreme music for art lovers.
8/10
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Hydra Head’s Official Website
