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KAOSOPHIA “Beyond The Black Horizon”
KAOSOPHIA “Beyond The Black Horizon”
By Dr. Abner Mality
In the midst of a brutal war, Ukraine still produces some of the best metal around. 1914 and WHITE WARD top the list for me and the many projects of Roman Saenko are also in the mix. And that brings us to KAOSOPHIA, the latest wunderkind to spring from the troubled land.
“Beyond The Black Horizon” is a powerful blast of thoughtful, varied black metal mixed with touches of death and even progressive metal. The production here is clear and every instrument comes across with maximum impact. These guys have the knack for coming up with really majestic and mysterious sounding riffs. At different times, I was reminded of HAVUKRUUNU, THE RUINS OF BEVERAST and their fellow countrymen 1914 and DRUDKH.
With the exception of “Funeral of the Gods”, all song titles are written in the Cyrillic alphabet and so I won’t try to recreate them here. But I can tell you that Track #1 opens in the album as impressively as any I’ve heard this year…fantastic riffs and clever tempo changes abound. Most of the songs unfold in a gloomy mid-tempo, with mysterious atmosphere like a dark Ukrainian forest. Naturally, all lyrics are in Ukrainian as well, so the vocalist could be giving the recipe for borscht for all I know.
All the songs are interesting, but #1, “Funeral of the Gods” and #7 were the best of an outstanding lot. Even the final brief instrumental serves as a good cap to the album instead of just another throwaway tune. So KAOSOPHIA are doing their bit to keep the proud tradition of Ukrainian metal alive. This might not be easy to find, but is worth the effort!
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