Got new albums by Khemmis, Obsequiae and Macabre Omen plus the latest Chips & Beer a few weeks back.
Khemmis was very underwhelming on a full listen. I heard one song prior to buying which I enjoyed but taken as a whole, the record is about as interesting as a children's pop-up book. The production is far too slick, all the songs are in the same key, the clean sangin' isn't convincing anyone and the hardcore screamin' dude sounds like he wandered into the wrong studio. Some nice leads and harmonies here and there but the disk levels out into a monotonous slog after the first track. Bummer. The other two CDs I bought on the other hand are fantastic! Obsequiae tops the previous record (which was already rad) with nothing but net. Incredible lead guitar work with some of the dreamiest use of delay I've heard since Solstice, stronger riff compositions and song arrangements than before, and the meandering harp interludes are all kinds of sexy. Macabre Omen takes a sacrificial dagger and stabs it into the still-beating heart of Hellenic Black Metal and squeezes everything that I love about the style into a ceremonial vase as a blood-ritual to Hephaestus. You got the fast palm-muted guitar abuse alongside the melodic riffing, expansive use of tempos, grandiose clean vocals, archaic imagery and themes and all that other stuff that makes the old Rotting Christ, Varathron, Thou Art Lord and Necromantia records so damn good. Way better than the latest records from all these bands, except maybe Varathron.
Chips & Beer, of course, continues to excite and delight both my inner and outer dirtbag with it's complete and utter disregard for social and business norms with their writing style which is both insightful and hilarious, if a little jarring and obscure at times.
