review: Khôra

Khôra

Timaeus

Soulseller Records

April 17th, 2020

This is not really an album as much as it is sliding down the rabbit hole only to roll down into a bunch of other holes further down. It seems apparent enough at first. Blasting extreme metal, extreme vocals. The first song seems like a black metal track, with a contemporary production, kind of fancy schmancy studio magic and extreme metal, but most likely still very much recognizable as a descendant of black metal, perhaps with a proggy influence. You may be thinking, “Ok, I know where this is going. Black metal.” Not quite! The second song shows a much more melodic side, including some singing, and a more proggy edge to the music. “Ok, I don’t really know where this is going. Let’s see.”

It turns out that there is a solid portion of black metal, but so is there a serious proggy underbelly to this beast. To be honest, it is not an easy album to understand at first, unless you are a big proghead. It does require patience and repeated listens to begin to see what’s going on. The album is more like a book that’s meant to play games with the reader a little bit, not a linear narration. It’s not a meat-and-potatoes extreme album. There seem to be quite a few vocal styles peppered throughout. There are fast, blazing tempos, and there are symphonic parts, slow segments and other things to achieve variety. It’s not a weirdo nor experimental work per se, but the prog is strong with this one, resulting in a somewhat challenging but enjoyable listen.

soulsellerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/timaeus