Racing through tunnels of shadowy, throat-gripping hands, the sounds of Havohej’s new album ‘Kembatinan Premaster’ finally makes its way to your ear drums, leaving you in an utterly confused and mortified state. Paul Ledney has released yet another creeping disc of bleakness and unforgiving terror that’s sure to cause some to scratch their heads and others to scratch their eyes out. Try playing this when you’re walking alone at night on some dark street; it’ll be like watching a horror movie. Yes, knife-wielding maniacs are out to get you. You’re not safe at home. Death will follow shortly.
“Experimental Black Metal” can probably be used to describe just about every Black Metal act out there today, as not many really sound like good old 90’s bands. Not even the 90’s bands sound like 90’s bands anymore. Moving on though, for this band, experimental Black Metal is an appropriate tag, but the term ‘Black Metal terror’ that Watain use should be etched underneath the Havohej logo as well. The title track ‘Kembatinan Premaster’ is nothing but a void of emptiness. It sucks your soul into it and spits it back out into another dimension.
‘Bloud and Souls’ and ‘Bloud of the Word,’ are both so repetitive, it all somehow works. Like a hurricane, it’s constant and ready to destroy. ‘Sundowning (Destroying Men and Beasts with Lookes’ is just insane. First of all, the title seems like a random jumbling of words, like someone ate a dictionary and coughed back up a few strips of paper. This song literally sounds like someone took a vacuum and placed it on top of a microphone and hit ‘record.’ That or the studio Havohej used is located on a plane. Then, there’s how the music seems smashed together into a macabre entity. Pulsating with high and low frequencies, ‘Hatefull unto God’ is one thunderstorm of a song. It sounds like someone bashing your brains in with a hammer. The mood is violent and schizophrenic.
Admittedly, Havohej appear to be cheesy and unattractive at first glance, but pick up ‘Kembatinan Premaster,’ overlook the intentional misspellings of tracks and all of the other childish weirdness, lock yourself in your room, turn the lights off, lay on your bed and blast this CD out of your speakers. No, this features absolutely no mastery over any instrument whatsoever and the song-writing is very simple, but this is just pure droning Black Metal misfortune.
‘Kembatinan Premaster’ is what a psychopath listens to right before he kills somebody, which is why this album is not intended for those who sometimes forget to take their medication.
Hells Headbangers Records
- Country: USA
- Style: Black Metal, Death Metal, Thrash Metal, Other
- Links: Homepage, Facebook, Instagram, Bandcamp, Youtube
