Khtoniik Cerviiks: The name is not easy to pronounce. The album title is long; and the tracks names are complex. But please keep reading this, because we’re here for the music. And the music is quite raw.
The guitar work during the intro to “Schizophradio (KC Exhalement 2.0: Technocide Inertiia)” (the title of the first track) pulls us back to a sound concept that we haven’t heard in long years: old fusion guitar work, aligned with drum breaks. These are in fact two of the main notes that mark the album. Speaking of musical aspects off course. Because in terms of lyrics and general concept we’ll have technological chaos, schizophrenia and other mental diseases.
Don’t expect pretty riffs, balanced drum chorus or groovy bass. In “SeroLogiikal Scars (Vertex of Dementiia)” everything enters sharply, like cutting the immediate previous melody. Even though one may consider the sharpness too thick in some moments, the barbaric aggression unleashed after “SeroLogiikal Scars (Sequence 1.0: Vertex of Dementiia)” corrects some edge cutting passages.
Old and unusual Black/Death attack, with several technical passages that may probably harm the ensemble of KHTHONIIK CERVIIKS as a band sometimes. But there is no monotonous moments here. Always with lots of guitar “gamuts”, whether “sharp” or more “groovy”.
The general feeling while listening to the album is one of nostalgia and of taste for the past, where the barbarianism was on the loose throughout extreme music. But this old school feeling is also noted in other moments, namely in “SeroLogiikal Scars (Sequence 2.0: Veiled Viiral Vektor)” where a doom/death guitar war cult takes place. The general production doesn’t try to pull the Germans into modernity either.
It’s quite impressive to speak about the past when you have some many technology related themes in the album. And that’s why towards the end of “SeroLogiikal Scars” the technical work returns, notably in the guitars, even if maybe taking the solos too deep. Too many times. The voice is where we find the darkest corner of this effort, once the instrumental side is more focused on technical questions.
Don’t be impressed by the tracks titles, because this is, all & all, a recommendable record, especially if you are an extreme old school die-hard fan.
6,5/10
