Khariot formed in 2008 in Perth, Western Australia. They are a self proclaimed mixed genre band, though their Myspace states 'death metal / experimental / progressive'. I first heard this band on the Western Alliance, ?Operation Metal Storm? compilation CD. After hearing their track I said, ?Definitely a good decision to put this one in the compilation; a band to investigate further!? And now I finally have my opportunity to check them out, so here we go.
Malediction Eclipse ? The introduction to this album is an instrumental track with one hell of an edge. It starts out with a tainted guitar melody yet quickly presents its true essence; chaotic, heavy and intense. With a duration of 03:42 and such extremities in the performance, you really need to be switched on. There are amazing guitar leads and melodies in here and some intricate drum work. It is one hell of a welcome to the CD.
Upon Thy Mortal Throne ? The brutality has truly inset and writhes through this next song. It is a very heavy form of death metal with smooth sounding, death vocals. There is also a black metal style of secondary vocals. This is the longest track on the album at 07:40 and it is filled with much diversity yet it maintains a solid direction. I love all these guitar leads! They aren?t poser leads either. They are nicely embedded within the rest of the music. Even amidst the chaotic tunes there is a nice groove to thrash along to. If all progressive metal were like this, I?d be ok with it. Great track!
Crimson Sanctorum ? Straight into this next track with a blistering bedlam. These guys are obviously very talented musicians as they manage to utilise every part of every instrument in such a complex fashion. They?d really want to have a decent sound guy at gigs lest it all ended up sounding like a blur. So much of this style of metal I hear is too chaotic for my liking, but the chaos I am hearing in here is strangely beautiful.
The Hermit ? Here we have another extended track at 07:08. It starts out with a whispered chant, but of course the insanity soon arrives. This one is heavy as fuck! The guitars and drums are simply slicing through the rhythms and beats like an adrenalized chainsaw at times. It is bewitching! As diverse in context as all these instruments are, they are all playing together as a band, as one. This is the attribute lost in most progressive and technical bands. This union is what makes Khariot kick arse!
Spectral Monarchy ? The drums hammer away furiously, maintaining the intricacies of their style throughout. The vocals are mainly blackened with a fair amount of regular death vocals. The guitars also continue on with their diverse melodies yet continually crunch out a follow able rhythm. This is a fairly long track at 06:36 and you shant know when the end approaches as it is sudden and seemingly nonexistent as it goes straight into the next track.
Dimension Shift ? Carrying on from the previous track is this instrumental. It is the shortest on the album at 00:58 and is basically an intermission for us all to collect ourselves as we prepare for the second half of the album.
Cacophony Of The Insane ? Another instrumental and an extended one at that with a duration of 05:52. It is atmospheric and technical with a consistent flow to indulge in. Though, it is also very heavy and involved. Toward the end, there are some added effects to obscure it all out.
Cerebral Continuum ? Here we have another lengthy track at 07:15. These guys must have a lot of stamina to be able to thrash out so intricately for so long for each song. This one is simply chaotic. The intensity and intrinsic nature of it all is bewildering. There are some good guitar leads in here and the drums are just amazing. I also really like the lyrics throughout this album. The sound engineering is also excellent.
Shade ? The pace remains at a decent level as the music returns to a blackened theme. It is well structured and engineered. There are a few added effects set into the background. The music continues to be heavy, chaotic and imposing.
...Of Frail Entanglements ? Here we have yet another extended track at 07:00 and I can only applaud the stamina required for creating this album. There is no letting up from this pace. The guitars relay impressive leads and melodies whilst the drums dispatch their unrelenting beats. All until the end of this track where it gets quite confusing and mentally irreparable as the song fades out.
11:11 ? Now for the final track on the album and it is an instrumental, filled with gentle yet maddening effects to cool us all down after one very intense album.
In essence, Khariot are some very talented musicians with a knack for brutal and technical tunes. This album is a conglomeration of death, black, technical and progressive metal. It is filled with many technical changes but it all flows perfectly well. You can follow along with it all easy enough and bask in its blackened bliss. To create a harmonious technical or progressive metal band you need to play as a band, not as singular people all playing at once. These guys have achieved that and because of that, this album is awesome.
The CD I received is the in-store version and I will tell you right now that it is the best CD sleeve I have seen! It is highly detailed and the presentation is excellent. But let?s back up a bit... The CD cover looks like Judas Priest?s cover, ?Sin After Sin?. However, it has a darker feel to it so I like this one better. The inner part of the front cover has the band and recording information. As this is a digipack, the sleeve is hidden in the front cover?s pocket. The design to retrieve this isn?t so good. I think a thumb cut would?ve made this design complete a perfect package. After I managed to get the sleeve out, I was in awe. The front covering of the sleeve bears the logo. As you open it up the beauty begins. It has all the available lyrics and for where there is none it has some artwork. All are detailed with the guitar leads and who did them, who wrote the lyrics and so on. There are various band member pictures which are all quality pictures and some other random, yet interesting artwork. On the last two inner back pages are the extended thank you lists. On the back of the cover is a faded track list. The CD itself bears the logo in black and silver. Underneath the CD slot is the construction from the front cover. On the very back of the CD cover is a clear, unnumbered track listing, placed above the maze from the front cover?s design.
If you are an admirer of the old black metal Bathory or Emperor or even just like your technical death metal in general, then you are going to love this! I knew there was something about them when I first heard them on that compilation and I am glad it?s all come into fruition. It?s definitely worth the purchase and I highly recommend adding this beauty to your physical CD collection and you can start by checking them out on the links below.
- D?a di Mort? / Mystic Metal / 14 November 2011
http://www.mysticmetal.com.au/reviews/khariot/disymposium/KHARIOT
"Disymposium"
Independent / Southern Darkness Recordings (CD 2011)
Hi, this Kepol reviewing CD for a group called KHARIOT, and so the neighbors can see it ... Described precisely "Disymposium" is an album where you can disappear for quite a few hours. This is the album that bore not the easiest and the contents can not be fully embrace. Avant-garde fashion to the metal you say? Maybe so, but even if they are the authors of this mighty CD recorded for pre-emptive overwhelming majority of modern publications of this kind, which can easily start to compete with that even if UNEXPECT THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN, taking into account the criterion of the creative visionary, because the musical horse KHARIOT members of a different drawer comes. The flight can be confirmed by the team to guess the inspiration.
Drummer Michael Rule game in seemingly chaotic, but in reality very complicated way, more or less how your set ostukuje Brann Dailor from MASTODON (eg, "Shade"), and the way it is also worth mentioning that customize guitars, characterized for duo Hinds / Kelliher, marked by many here really works (such as "Crimson Sanctorum", "Cerebral Continuum"). Being here on the agenda of logical melodic licks smuggle the skin of the whole mass exchanging the agreement with the broken section, guitar dissonance (eg, "Upon Thy Mortal Throne," "Spectral Monarchy") is an indispensable asset of the best albums Atheist. When such a "distorting mirror" put black metal, it becomes clear that the time to recall what bands like Deathspell Omega or ENSLAVED stylistic regions. But I have no chance to create you anything near a conclusive idea of this record. "Disymposium" sounds as if telepathically linked virtuosos nafaszerować some psychoactive substances, closed in separate recording studios, and then all gather together, mix and spend.
Composite templates are just outlines, suggestions for which KHARIOT musicians are most in agreement, but which do not close their road to the brave experimentation. Singing guitarists - Gavin Foo and Shah Zaini - a veritable miracles do flipping solos, piłując as race, the black and looping the band their mark, and already used by me is true, the term "section" will probably not fully adequate, because lots of waving chopsticks Rule's and perspiring with thick wires Darren Joy, are no exception to the rule of a strong "run over", which is governed by this album. Perth is Australia's isolated location, whose value has already realized many months ago, reviewing excellent "Decimator" the local NEVERBORN and where it can be noted even so promising representatives outside the box of metal, such as NEXUS or MALIGNANT MONSTER. KHARIOT it to me not only the name that will put another dot on the musical map of the city, but the team of much greater importance.
Rating: 9 / 10
KEPOL /MROCZNA STREFA (THE DARK ZONE) / DEC 2011
http://www.mrocznastrefa.webh.pl/index.php?dzial=recenzje&id=694theres also an interview with Kepol from Mroczna Strefa.
read the translation here -
http://www.facebook.com/notes/khariot/khariot-interview-mroczna-strefa-webzine/10150488559859149original (in Polish) -
http://www.mrocznastrefa.webh.pl/index.php?dzial=wywiady&id=89