Heads-up: Khorne - Demo ...

Two tracks may be enough and not enough at the same time. Enough for catching and appreciating the potentials of a band and not enough for enjoying said band adequately.  This is what happens with the doom band Khorne, an unusual band.

Why unusual? Well, because Khorne is from Pakistan! If you go and check Metal Archives for Pakistani metal bands you’ll discover that, in spite of what one may think about those central Asian countries/societies that seem so far from our musical background, there actually is some truly careful attention and interest towards heavy music. Pakistan does have an unexpectedly rich heavy music scene and Khorne are part of it.  Khorne are a quartet from Karachi who play a blend of  heavy, Sabbathian doom metal merged with doses of death and essential hints of black metal. They play so bleak and especially so “trve” that it seems as if they had been exposed to and absorbed heavy gloomy doomy tunes since ages. These four guys, i.e. Farhan Rathore on vocals, Corpse on lead/rhythm guitars, Daniyal Buksh Soomro on bass and Omair Soomro on drums, emerged during early 2013, when they posted their two demo tracks via Bandcamp. Only two tracks, the almost 5 minute-long Resurrection and the 5:30 minutes-long Pandemonium, ways of depicting the guys’ pessimism, their “landscapes of misery and depression”, and possibly also a few provoking ideas about how to interact with religion. At any latitude Doom seems to be an adequate vehicle for such feelings and dark moods.

Also the band’s very name, Khorne says much: in the war game Warhammer, Khorne is the name of the God of War, Chaos and Hatred. So no wonder that Satan is provocatively evoked in Resurrection and what follows is Pandemonium! Debut track Resurrection is drenched with an almost epic feeling via the plodding, slow and almost martial rhythm leading the song and especially the melancholic guitar solos closing the track with their laments. The death metal-styled raspy and deeply growled vocals are, on the contrary, fierce and unearthly, and are able to evoke atmospheres recalling  bands like Mournful Congregation and Asphyx. Pandemonium was the second track with which the quartet fed their big army of fans after the first bite of Ressurrection. This track has a different cover art, shows an even nastier face of the band and, I would say, a heavier, darker and less redolent version of doom.

Pandemonium is a monster track, distilled war doom. It is slightly more dynamic than Resurrection, guitars are more downtuned and thundering, there’s less space for melancholy in favor of pure evil also conveyed by Farhan’s hellish blackened vocals (what a singer!). A vein of Sabbathian and Electric Wizard-esque doom imparts some groove as well as some sort of ritualistic, occult mood to this nasty doom-death ballad which is maybe closer to disEmbowelment’s and would benefit of a longer duration. Many people have already welcomed Khorne jumping into the international doom scene. If you missed this powerful dose of new, Eastern doom, go and visit Khorne on Bandcamp and get these two tracks for free download!

After meeting Khorne you’ll have to think about Pakistan not only in terms of cricket but also for great Sabbathian and nasty doooooom …. Khorne’s two-track demo is too short, and you definitely end up wanting more of their raw, nasty heaviness.  But, doomsters, your thirst of new, boundless gloom and doom will be quenched soon, as next month, July, will see Khrone eventually, and proudly, unleashing a proper release, their debut 5-song EP!

Words: Marilena Moroni

Khorne | Facebook
Khorne | Bandcamp