Khmer… Demo Review

Spain’s youth is pissed. The nation known for its beautiful weather and laid-back lifestyle hasn’t traditionally been one to produce many big-name metal and hardcore acts. Reasons for this may be cultural, demographical or purely speculative, but the season is ripe for change. An unprecedented tide is turning in the streets as the country struggles. The economic and political turmoil plaguing the mighty European nation for the past few years — last week the youth unemployment rate rose to a devastating 53% — has spawned a new level of anger and uncertainty; a most potent mixture of ingredients for extreme music. Khmer is a testament to this.

Full review after the jump!

Whether or not their songs are political in nature remains to be seen, but the aggression and bile they spew forth is undeniable. Opening the demo with a quick throat punch, the band lets you know exactly what mood they’re in, and they want you to join them. Quick d-beat aggression pounds alongside screeches that would feel right at home in any Northern European horde. The riffs are furious, the tempo-changes blindsiding. Both guitarists feed off each other’s violent harmonies to create a brick wall of sound, continuously building itself up only to be brought down by its own weight. The Madrid quintet realizes a Converge-like aesthetic dipped into a molten pot of blackened filth, dripping with ferocity and grime and polished just enough to be palatable.

Second track “Magna Marter” is the demo’s highlight. Its opening melodic saunter is the only time the band lets things drop below the 150bpm range, showing off their musical chops that extend beyond barbarous pummeling by brooding on a groovy bass line that explodes into one of the most head-bangable moshfests of the year. It invites a feeling of cathartic aggression, bliss through violence.

Khmer races through their quarter-hour debut with absolutely no filler, because they have no time to waste. Their hate is real, their wounds fresh. Eschewing customary bureaucracies and for-profit nonsense, the band created Khmer in exactly the way this music should be made. The self-titled demo was recorded and mixed by the band in the guitarist’s home studio and released to the world free of charge. The volume and talent shown here is loud and clear, immediately proving their potential to be a leading force in the coming mini-revolution. We hear your anger, and we’re listening.

The demo is available on their Bandcamp, and you can follow the group through Spanish language updates on Facebook.