Chaos Is My Name (Chaos Is My Name - Khlyst)

Member Name: Frankingsteins

Product:	Chaos Is My Name - Khlyst
Date:	12/08/08 (29 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Something different.

Disadvantages: There's a reason no other album sounds like this.

I'm always eager to listen to music proclaiming itself to be avant-garde, as although most of the time it's just a bunch of stoned musicians making rubbish noise, sometimes something beautiful and genre-defining will emerge. Not in the case of Khlyst's debut release though, which is mostly awful.

This album is a near fifty-fifty mix of freestyle black metal drone and tedious ambience, and just to further the band's obvious disdain for its own music, the tracks are merely numbered rather than named. Guitarist James Plotkin does nothing to impress here in the drone sections, sounding like he's tuning up all the time and playing the exact same slow riff behind songs I and III before varying slightly later on, and Tim Wyskida's drums only come into play on rare occasions. Runhild Gammelsæter is the most memorable performer, beginning the album with creepy black metal rasps devoid of musical accompaniment, and he pops up every song or two to deliver more of the same pig-squealing scatting.

It's unlikely that you would have come across this album anyway. But just in case you do, it would probably be best to avoid.

1. I
2. II
3. III
4. IV
5. V
6. VI
7. VII
8. VIII

Summary: Khlyst's first album (2006).