ALBUM REVIEW: KHNVM – Foretold Monuments Of Flesh

Here I review the debut album from KHNVM, playing old school Death Metal. Release is on March 29th via Testimony Records.

1. Foretold Monuments Of Flesh grinds right into blasting drums and blistering dissonance from the guitars. The monolithic instrumentals are halted by a growl of the vocalist before everything descends into precise yet chaotic assaults. A furious amount of speed and distortion is used to create a hellish soundscape of frantically harsh old school Death Metal. Monstrous chugging is followed by some gorgeous guitar leads, really adding to the huge sound of the piece. The technical riffing towards the ended added some nice vibrancy to the song too. A killer opening track.

2. Invocato Deo Plaga grooves back in with more slamming tremolo riffs and hammering drums. A total furious barrage of instrumentals and vocals are thrown at us in truly fantastic grace with a ton of intricate songwriting and skilful musicianship. This song was a hideously heavy and thrashy piece throughout with an upbeat rhythm to insure optimal punchiness, delivering with style. The bass guitar really shines through on this track too, which gave it a certain warmth, working excellently with the lead guitar.

3. Heathen Beast opens with dissonant cascades of darkened grooves. Following this we are given odiously hard-hitting chugs and cymbal crashes that together with the macabre vocals and unhinging tone of the song allow for a totally epic, dungeon-crawling piece of gristle melting fury. I really enjoyed how discordant and untraditional this song was, it truly gave a very unique approach to the music utilising songwriting styles I would associate more with bands like Deathspell Omega. There was also a really cool swing to the rhythm of this piece. Brilliant!

4. Sic Mundus Creatus Est sets in with simplistic rhythms and punchy drum fills but also with eerie lead guitar work that creates a tensely foreboding atmosphere. The menacing groove of the song shortly sets in with whiplash assaults from the whole band. Cascading walls of noise that are truly piercing hit in waves, convulsing with hatred and morbidity, a truly killer piece of definitively harsh music that was just glorious. The use of some more technical musicianship was really well executed in a way that didn’t feel pretentious, the same applies to the melodic guitar solo. Excellent work.

5. Profaning The Ancient Rites blasts out more hateful growls and storming instrumentals. The vitriolic sound of the band is truly punishing in such an awesome way from the onset. The kick of the drums and surging riffs work so beautifully together, especially when bound by the spewed vocals. This is some hideously dark and brooding music filled with a thorough sense of contempt but also a self-aware level of ability and progression that is magnificent. The slower paced sections with the guitar solo added some nice doomy atmospherics that also allows the momentum to rest, something that can stop an album becoming exhausting or becoming dull. Another fantastically malevolent song.

6. Gutted To The Bone fires us right into more chaotic assaults with blast beats and hellishly heavy riffs. Vocally this song sounds so raw and filled with disgust in a really genuine way. Some slightly blackened touches on the guitar riffs allow the darkness to prosper in such a gorgeous way on this release, contradicting the more technical parts beautifully. The use of slower drums with the high tremolo riffs sounds absolutely haunting. Another totally epic track in a far more atmospheric way than I expected. The unpredictable nature of this release is something else I really value about it.

7. Kabbalah Of Darkness is the finale to this relatively short release, disregarding the time and offering a truly complete package in a concise manner. The bleak and chilling opening grooves from the guitar file into more soaring leads over them with tight double kick drums. This almost feels like it could be the start of a song by Inquisition which is certainly something I do not anticipate from a Death Metal album. The storming brutality that follows certainly puts things back in place for a smooth transition into crushing and mesmerising Death Metal that is as filled with melody and soul as it is heinously decimating. A truly wonderful closing piece.

This release is a concise and punchy assault of pure old school Death Metal mayhem. From start to end the album packs a tight and ferocious punch that will surely appeal to all fans of the genre. Dissonant, punchy and a genuinely glorious debut album. -8.5/10