Reflections of Darkness - Music Magazine - Kifoth

Details: Written by: Sebastian Huhn; Published: 23 July 2008

Title: Acerbity Torrent
Artist: Kifoth
Genre: Electronic
Release Date: June 2007
Label: Vendetta Music

Album Review

KIFOTH (short for Kneel in Front of the Executioner) firstly appeared in spring 1993. However the first CD release dates back to 1999 and is titled ‘Spectaclebreakers’, distributed by Out of Line in Europe. The same year sees the first tour of KIFOTH accompanied by a live drummer as support of HOCICO and from 1999 on regular performances on the Wave Gotik Treffen. The second album ‘Fundamentum Divisionis’ dives deeper into the dark sounds of ambient. After a silent period of many years, caused by a bad car accident of one of the members, the project returns with ‘Acerbity Torrent’ on their new label Vendetta Music.

If that first song ‘Icon’ wasn’t inspired by electronic pioneers SKINNY PUPPY, then you can call me, then I’ll eat a sheet of paper; the chant, consisting of these deeper grunts is so much Ogre, there’s no room for another comparison. The complex electronics provide their fair share to increase that assumption. I’ve heard lesser impressing reminisces. ‘Proper Behaviour’ literally screams out pain; it’s full of it, the warped vocals do lament, they tell a story of suffering, screaming it out into the night whilst being surrounded by an aura of decay and, compared to the previous track’s rather minimal instrumentation regarding the rhythm structures; sounds more like 80s industrial if you ask me. ‘The Wrath’ is bringing out another face of the project, following a kind of balladry approach and piano sounds roam through the song. The rhythm takes an unsuspected turn towards the end by gaining much more momentum. ‘Leaving’ is such a chaotic piece of music but you just have to admire them for putting together such an eclectic mixture of beats and sounds. The intro, a myriad of noisy oscillations, high frequency tones and sampled voices is a brilliant masterpiece. You have no idea which direction that song will eventually take and suddenly washes of sopping wet betas roll over you to make way to an acoustic interlude the next moment. The track just keeps you on your toes the whole time and to focus to not miss anything.

A tough ride it was indeed but we have to hang on as ‘The Art of Faith’ is approaching and it has come to intrigue with its broken chords and the paranoid beat work alongside the virtuosi played piano lines and the orchestral strings guiding you deeper into melancholy. Also in a very melancholic direction goes ‘Paradox’ there’s so much playful melodic work in it but it has one flaw. No offence but the use of clean vocals just sounds terrible. Sometimes it really is better to use a distortion filter. It’s better if we would go on to ‘Malice Monument’ which is an instrumental track and definitely smoothes away that flaw, driven by thick layers of melodic sadness atop the break beat constructions and shamanic chants. Frankly, the next song comes a bit unexpected, a high-octane Drum’n’Bass monster with a bit untypical trance elements; just sounds cheap and doesn’t reach the quality of other tracks on the album. I’ve very much taken ‘The Fleece’ into my heart which comes a little bit later in the track list, mainly because of its drum sections, very massive and layered for a mid-tempo track and the atmosphere it builds up with minimal pad accentuation and ‘The Cycle’ maintains a faster pace throughout it its 3.5 minutes with a steadily shifting beta underground bound y crisp atmospherics. The real highlight of the track is the enormous glitch. It really makes you think your player has a malfunction; not like many other glitching effects you can easily recognize as such.

That Slovakian project has established a very unique but at times hardly accessible sound which reduces the circle of listeners drastically I suppose. Nevertheless it has so much to offer if you’re just taking it in.

Tracklist

01. Icon – 3:32
02. Proper Behaviour – 4:51
03. Enslaved – 4:29
04. The Wrath – 5:24
05. Leaving – 6:20
06. The Art of Faith – 3:05
07. Paradox – 4:42
08. Malice Monument – 2:46
09. Tyranny – 3:36
10. Obsequious – 3:52
11. The Fleece – 5:11
12. Candle – 9:37
13. Particles Transmission – 1:53
14. Circle – 3:39
15. Jezis Kristus – 3:44
16. Proper Behaviour (Severe Illusion RMX) – 5:16
17. Loading Completed – 1:48

Line-up

K-head
mirColon

Website

http://www.ttx-net.sk/kifoth / http://www.myspace.com/kifoth

Cover Picture