KHAOOOHS

Pan.Thy.Monium's second album Khaoohs is pretty much a continuation from where they left us with Dawn Of Dreams. For you who are unaware of this group, it's another project out of the many headed by Dan Swano, well actually it's not just another project, it's the most progressive one and maybe the heaviest one by him, and if i may say, it's definitely my favorite. Swano uses this band to go wild, to be weird and most of all to experiment not just with music but on the vocals department too. Although known for his great vocals, clean or growls, Swano leaves the growling job for his band mate Robert Karlsson, which is doing a great job and manages when he likes, not to be harsh but as pleasant as those vocals can be. The music essentialy is a good mix between extreme metal, jazz and other avant ideas. I'm not a fan of the extreme metal genre at all, but this group just grabbed me with their cool mix of styles and above all great playing.

What makes them one of the best progressive acts are two things, one is their instrumentation, that aside from your usual metal music instruments there's the addition of keys and saxophone, the second is the fact that they are totally progressive, and knows how to write good effective music, the ideas are unusual and interesting, the music is going forward and is not being stuck on a main riff idea, it spreads to all kinds of directions. The band is tight and just knows how to play together, it all sounds very coherent and powerful. Another element that characterizes the band are the guitars, rhythm guitar has a very low sludgy tone that suits the vocals perfectly since they are low and sludgy too, Lead guitar does not have that typical extreme metal tone or that metal way of playing, the sound is very clear and not that distorted, and has very jazzy touch. The solos are amazing, played a lot of times with wah wah which makes it very groovy, with all sorts of jazzy lines and some bluesy lines too. Swano's bass playing is also good as he uses some chorus effect at times, giving the music some melodic touch.

Although half the album contains short songs, that doesn't hold them of being any less progressive than the longer cuts, every song is going in it's own progy way, the ideas are not repeating theirselves, and every song contain something unique, like saxophone/guitar riffs, funky jazzy solos, beautiful melodic parts, all sorts of keys parts, avant-garde and excellent riff after riff. The music goes from slow doomy riffs to faster breaks and all sorts of avant progressive additions. I believe nothing can prepare you to what you are about to hear because it's all pretty unexpected. I wasn't impressed the first time i heard it but definitely felt something special. As it grew on me every time i played it, i realize that it might be better than their debut. You can't go wrong with any of their albums, and this one is also superb. 4.2 stars for this genre. Recommended!!