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Keep Of Kalessin: Through times of war
19/01/10 || Smalley
It’s rare that you come across an album so aptly titled, since, by the time you’re done with “Through times of war”, you’ll feel like you’ve been in a war. There’s not much ebb-and-flow here, no acoustic ballads or “epic” instrumentals to show off the band’s wanking abilities (on their instruments…), just crushingly dark, intense black metal all the way. Considering this was Keep Of Kalessin’s very first outing, and the approach they went with (so many black metallers get this style wrong), “Through times” turns out to be a surprisingly compelling, effective album overall. It was here that Kalessin avoided becoming just another inconsequential, sub-par BM group, and joined the kick-ass elites of that genre instead.
Pretty much every riff on “Through times” is laden with doom, and I don’t mean the sluggish, Ahab kind of doom, I mean the menacing, “your Doomsday cometh REAL fuckin’ soon” kind. Combine that with the strong guitar sound and the overall speed of these riffs, and you got some serious headbang fodder in the making here! The harsh, frenzied screaming from Ghâsh only adds on to the dark heaviness of the album, and the echo of those screams will make you think you’re hearing the tortured cries of a demon, reverberating out of the depths of Hell.
The always-intense, frantic drumming by Vyl deserves praise as well, with a strong, nicely audible drum sound that prevents it from being ignored, even among all the riffing, screaming, and general chaos of the record. The occasional guitar solo adds a welcome spice to the proceedings, as do the instances of subtle, haunting synth work, but writing-wise, while the songs here do have the occasional lull in speed, they mostly stick to burst after burst of up-tempo, aggressive sound assaults.
And yes, that does render the songs here a bit shapeless, without much clear progression from one song section to another, or even much of a progression from one track to the next (Opeth, these guys aren’t); non-stop aggression is pretty much the only order for the day on “Through times”. So, the songs do tend to blend together because of that, and I can’t really point to any one of them as a stand-out, but when an album gives this good a pummeling, so what? “Through times of war” is a very cool example of from-start-to-finish controlled insanity, and is perfect for anyone dying to get their headbang on; just be ready for the inevitable shell shock that comes with this one.
- Information
- Released: 1997
- Label: Avantgarde Music
- Website: www.keepofkalessin.no
- Band
- Ghâsh: vocals
- Obsidian C.: guitars, synths
- Warach: bass
- Vyl: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Through Times Of War
- 02. Den Siste Krig
- 03. As A Shadow Cast
- 04. I Choose To Suffer
- 05. Skygger Av Sorg
- 06. Obliterator
- 07. Nectarous Red / Itch
