KAWIR – Κυδοιμοσ

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7.5

• Bands:
  KAWIR
• Duration: 00:52:29
• Available from: 04/19/2024
• Label:

• Soulseller Records

Thirty-one years of career marked by the black flame of Tartarus, and nine albums to seal the passage of time: the Greeks Kawir are one of those realities that, within an underground teeming with forces and currents, always manage to maintain one’s position is firm and solid; never really ascended in terms of popularity, yet capable over the years of building that aura of esteem and respect from Hellenic black metal enthusiasts that surrounds those who were able to make a crucial contribution to the birth of the genre itself .
We find them again in 2024, four years after the previous – truly beautiful – “Αδράστεια”, once again reinterpreting the dictates of this particular type of black metal by looking, with a personal gaze as always, at their Greek roots, illuminating the most tragic and dramatic ones of the most ancient mythological and philosophical culture, preferring them to the more luciferian and sulphurous path followed for example by Varathron colleagues, without this however meaning less destructive power.
On the contrary, the common thread that flows in all fifty-two minutes of “Κυδοιμοσ” is that of one of daimones of war: Kydoimos, precisely, or the personification of the terrible cacophony of battle, often alongside his mother Eris (goddess of discord) to sow terror on the terrain of wars and clashes. This entity goes well with the ferocity that, from the deadly “Τειρεσιασ (Teiresias)” onwards, explodes unstoppably throughout the platter.
Hydrophobic breaks, killer riffs and solos with a classic and epic heavy aftertaste (like the one in “Μυρμιδονεσ (Myrmidons)”) by the mastermind Therthonax and Iason, sometimes theatrical and sometimes abrasive voices, a very tireless rhythm section – “Κενταυρομαχια (Centauromachy )” and “Αχιλλεασ & Εκτωρασ (Achilles & Hector)” still make us breathless – how capable of variety in juggling the breath of the songs and a general taste entirely of the Hellenic school for certain melodies are once again put on display with admirable expertise; the title track is a paradigmatic and very black example, with a beastly charge that sounds even more urgent here than in past chapters.
Of course, more majestic and triumphal nods appear here and there, as in “Εκατογχειρεσ (Hecatonchires)”, with a cadenced progression and illuminated by synth inserts, “Η κηδεια του Αχιλλεα (Achilles Funeral)”, or the final “Πολεμ οσ παντων (War Is The Father Of All)” and the sense of inexorability given by the obsessive, dark and repeated riff, but the general sensation is precisely that of an ‘impatient’ record, full of energy and weapons unsheathed to give voice, after centuries and with different means, al daemon whose name it bears.
Embellished by the keyboard work of none other than Dis Pater (!), the multifaceted artist behind the black spatial-dreamlike creature Midnight Odyssey, “Κυδοιμοσ” is yet another well-aimed blow from Kawir to the entire extreme panorama, perhaps slightly inferior to the previous work in terms of listening performance, but an example of genuine Greek adherence to a certain way of living and playing black metal. Even after thirty years, still a guarantee.