Khaos-Dei is a brand new black metal outfit from France who’ve been quietly laying the groundwork for their first release with a bit of secrecy-shrouded and mysterious marketing drip-fed here and there. It’s undeniably French with firmly nationalist undertones even though it doesn’t quite fit the avant-garde format that most French black metal these days appears to seamlessly adopt. This is meaty black metal washed down with half a bottle of Burgundy and such a Gallic whiff you can almost hear the cock of the head and the rumble of revolution as the guillotine descends with a thud. The roots are most apparent in the vocals which are clearly rasped and enunciated. But there’re also those supplementary chattering pauses in the tracks and sundry effects – the very occasional rousing choral flourish, for example – which all serve to feed in nicely to the thinly veiled promises of something a little different here.
As well as cranking up the teasers on the old social media, it also turns out that the trio that makes up Khaos-Dei have links with plenty of other bands including Depressive Winter, Seth as well as affiliations with other bands beyond the extreme metal scene including hardcore outfit Kickback. But the fact that Khaos-Dei have also managed to get the backing of the ever-consistent Osmose Productions means it shouldn’t be too much of a shot in the dark. In fact, the album kicks off smoothly even though the semi-melodic black metal that serves as the first track admittedly sounds more Swedish than anything French. But, after that, Khaos-Dei set about flexing their muscular brand of black metal into various hues and forms. There’s a death metal vibe to some parts with chugging and distortion amply decorating the album like tinsel around a charred Christmas tree that some miserable sod has put to the torch. But there’s some hardcore aggression here too that seems to introduce a lively, almost jovial, attitude and far from what you’re likely to hear coming out of stone-cold Oslo, Bergen or anywhere else north of the Baltic.
But that only adds to what is a decent and competent slab of music here. Khaos-Dei show a mastery of pressing all the right buttons while managing to stamp their own personality on Tell Them Lucifer… . The highlight is the final blast ‘L’Office Du Divin’, which is not only the most confidently delivered track but which also contains the most twists and turns and in fact have been promised throughout the album but turned out to be a little more sparse than I initially had hoped for. Overall, this is pretty faultless in delivery and a solid release. If that can all be replicated on stage with the personality and passion shining through I can imagine this coming across well live too. Perhaps a few more frills and risks could have brought that out a bit more in the recording studio and with only six proper tracks here I felt like Khaos-Dei had only just begun to set about showing us their hand. The vocals are powerful and the band’s take on black metal has more than enough energy and casual, aggressive confidence winning which I can imagine the plenty of people over.
(7.5/10 Reverend Darkstanley)
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