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Kosmokrator – Through Ruin.. Behold

kosmokrator – through ruin.. behold

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I consider Kosmokrator one of the finest outcomes from Belgium. Their atmospheric Black/Death blend which unifies aggression and levitating moments is killer. Their EP “First Steps Towards Supremacy“ was top notch and I was curious how the journey will continue.

Now 3 years later they offer us their first full length, clocking in 47 minutes of cosmic shadows rising up from the human subconscious. According to certain sources the material was written between 2013 and 2018 which is quite a long period of time. Interesting to see that it doesn`t affect the album too much of becoming too alien from one track to other, although you can hear some development or newer ways of expression without changing its core sound. The length of the tracks vary from 4 and a half to 9 minutes, showing the capability of writing songs with the length needed to capture its full potential.

The album features a rich mixture of horrific groove parts, fast dissonant brutality and dynamic atmospheric ambient moments, put in a way that it remains challenging, intricating and catchy at the same time (at least for this kind of sound there are some memorable moments). YOB or Bölzer like moments are shining through their material, of which Bölzer’s “Aura” seems to be the most obvious one, mostly in terms of scales and grooves. The dark aura of the album seems to be the right sound for today’s apocalyptic state of humankind.

The labyrinthian ways of arrangements, like Bölzer or even Grave Miasma make the album an excellent trip into the dark corners of the earth or cosmos. This is typical 2010`s era Black Death, disturbing, dark atmospheric, organic and less accessible than your old school bands, but If done well way more forward thinking and interesting than most retro bands. Killer debut with a nice artwork by Ketola and a good way to end 2019. (DPF)

Kosmokrator

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