There’s a refreshingly old-school vibe to Belgian act KomaH, a band who comfortably draw upon the combined experience of Machine Head, Pantera and Slipknot on their skull-flattening second album ‘between vice and virtue’. It is not an album that reinvents the wheel by any means, rather it is a record that sits comfortably in the pantheon of competent heavy metal albums that wear their influences on their sleeves, putting them to good use without moving beyond the preordained boundaries set by those that have trod the line before.
A ten track album, including the blistering ‘The king of raptors’ which features a guest appearance form Gary Meskil and Adam Phillips of pro-pain, ‘between vice and virtue’ has much to recommend it, not least a glistening production job (courtesy of Lulgi Chiarelli and the band themselves whilst recording and mixing duties went to Charles De Schutter), as well as a vital sense of groove that makes it quite impossible to avoid banging your head to the vicious riffs the band churn out with abandon over the course of the disc. Opening with the pounding beats of ‘the birth’, it is clear that you can expect no quarter from KomaH, who slam straight into the album with a dizzying array of primal riffs and Phil Anselmo-esque vocals. You can almost feel the sweat flowing as the band tear into the song and it’s clear form the off that KomaH have great potential and not insignificant musical skill. ‘One after the other’ is similarly hewn from crunching mid-nineties metal, drummer Antoine Goudeseline demonstrating his immense talent behind the kit whilst vocalist Leny Andrieux shows that he is equally capable of delivering deathly roars, more melodic singing and even a hardcore styled delivery, often in the course of the same song. It is seriously heavy, brutal music, aimed squarely at reducing the mosh-pit to a seething cauldron of sweat and hair, and yet even at its most extreme there is a strong sense of melody that guarantees you’ll still remember these songs after the initial surge of adrenalin has long-passed out of memory. ‘Breaking horns’ takes the pace up a notch, the band refusing to even allow the listener to draw breath before they launch straight into the track’s riff-strewn territory. ‘A humbling experience’ briefly moves into Soilwork territory with its melodic intro and stunningly aggressive delivery, the band again delivering when it comes to mixing melody and aggression at exactly the point where the songs become memorable without becoming diluted.
With guest appearances from pro-pain members Gary and Adam, ‘the king of raptors’ will probably be one of the more widely heard komaH tracks – something which hopefully will lead plenty of new fans to chack out the rest of this blistering album – and it is a strong track, although in all honesty little extra is added to KomaH’s already impressive sound by the collaboration. ‘Last way to Cerberus’, on the other hand, is a moody track that demonstrates KomaH’s versatility whilst keeping the atmosphere tense and exciting, recalling Machine Head at their most restrained. The orchestral (and quite brilliant) ‘beyond the limits’ has a crunching, Terminator-referencing feel – huge, pounding war drums and atmospheric noise leading towards the splenetic ‘destiny written in blood’ with its screaming guitar intro and frenetic riffs enough to give you a nose-bleed. ‘Hidden sacrifice’ slows things down a touch for a heavy, track that slowly reaches a brutal, pounding momentum laden with old-school chops and low key melodies. ‘The hunt’ closes the album on a suitably intense note, verses delivered with punk spite giving way to a huge melodic chorus , hints of unearth surfacing in the band’s brutal, chugging guitars and powerful vocal delivery.
Overall KomaH may not add anything spectacularly new to the world of metal, but what they do achieve is the spectacular distillation of their influences, delivering a crushing album that neither outstays its welcome nor sounds clichéd in the process. Simply put, the production and music is flawless throughout, the artwork beautifully laid out and the delivery intense making ‘between vice and virtue’ a powerful, modern metal album with wide (and richly deserved) appeal. With two albums under their belt, it would be nice to see KomaH exploring the boundaries of their talents on the next release, but in the meantime this is an unquestionably strong release from a powerful band who offer much for metal fans to get their teeth into.
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