Band:	Khlyst
Album:	Chaos Is My Name
Style:	Dark Ambient, Drone
Release date:	October 30, 2006
A review by:	Thryce

01. I
02. II
03. III
04. IV
05. V
06. VI
07. VII
08. VIII

Extreme Ambient
Label: Hydra Head Records
Total Running Time: 42:55


Fed up with the Christmas spirit already? Do you have more than enough of the fabricated coziness and fake warm 'n gently atmosphere? Well, luckily there's always Metal Storm to turn to. As an ultimate "Fuck Christmas" gift, here's a review of an album so cold 'n sick, you'd wish you were running around in a Christmas elf costume, harassing people by giving away free candy. Enjoy this Christmas killer... or not.


Wow. Just fucking wow. Khlyst is without a single doubt among the most unsettling shit I've ever heard - EVER! If you thought the soundtrack to The Blair Witch Project was somewhat disturbing, think again, that thing was just a soothing lullaby. If you thought you heard it all on Today Is The Day's Sadness Will Prevail when it comes to discomforting, well, nothing prevailed at all. I kid you not when I say; this is how the overwhelming horror of being left for dead in a dark mahogany coffin must sound like.

This band is so unearthly, immensely dark and downright creepy that they really put a whole new meaning to the term scaring the living daylight out of people. In fact, if I wouldn't know any better, I'd say the phrase is invented just after Khlyst released this brooding menace.

However, if you look into the band member's past record, some pieces of the petrifying puzzle fall into place. Two out of three members were in that certain psychopathic league of frenzied musicians, aka Khanate, while one of them also plays in Isis vocalist Aaron Turner's Lotus Eaters. Vocal duties are handed over to Runhild Gammelsæter, known from the newly-reformed - but still kvlt-as-hell and just as superior - Thorr's Hammer, but maybe better known from the occasional guest vocals for Sunn O))).

Talking about Gammelsæter 's vocals, those are just insanely frightening and hauntingly deranged. Like in eternal agony, harsh screams and shrieks of unfathomable madness are going astray over the gloomy yet hostile soundscapes.

Khlyst is everything and nothing. Khlyst is low budget drone. Khlyst is high definition ambient. Khlyst is wandering noise. Khlyst is the wind whistling through the deepest frostbitten woods. Khlyst is a dead kid in a corn field. Khlyst is the ancient ruin, long abandoned by those who once founded and tended it. Khlyst is in fact the same desolate house as in The Blair Witch Project. Khlyst is the entire universe closing in around you.


PS: this band is obviously too grim to have a MySpace page. But some totally awesome chick called gutural0woman uploaded all tracks on YouTube. Look it up... you might not survive.