25 minutes of malevolent stuff that’s trying to thumb a ride at the crossroads between melodi-crust chunter and black metal savagery. My tolerance for this stuff is at fairly low ebb, but Khmer impress thanks to their keen dynamic grasp and the sheer ferocity with which things’re delivered. It all gallops along at a merciless clip, and the combination of sharp, trebly riffing and frantic snarls hits like a scythe blade to the abdomen. We could maybe do with a hint of waywardness to liven up the whip-hand-of-a-control-freak tightness, but overall it’s solid enough that you could well imagine Southern Lord hoovering them up for their next full-length.
