Elusive German blackened death metal horde Ch’ahom have been around since at least 2016, and since then over the subsequent years they’ve quietly unleashed unto the underground a cryptic yet steady string of demo tapes, mainly (and supposedly) home recorded, quite lo-fi in the sound and overall vibe, yet nevertheless already exposing their theme centered around mesoamerican death rituals, and a cataclysmic sound laced with dumbfounding amounts of destruction, hinting at a marvelous potential not yet fully exercised. This obscure and intermittent existence the band has lead thus far is all about to end, as on July 7 2023 as Sentien Ruin will issue a new taste of huge things to come, in the form of their new “Ts’ono’ot” EP, a single track cassette tape with the same program reeking on each side which essentially comprises of a single, twelve minute, monstrous song, which today we’re excited to premiere in full right here:
“Ts’ono’ot” in reality is the first professionally recorded song the band has published in its now seven year-long existence, and is a cut sourced from the same recording sessions of the band’s still untitled and unannounced, but imminent, forthcoming debut album. The twelve minute behemoth track is presumably being fed to the masses early as a taste of what lurks ahead, and boy does this track stir up a frightening hype. If a full-length-worth more of this material is coming, then we’re up for something insane casting its shadow on the horizon.
You can forget what you’ve heard on the band’s demos this far. That raw, lo-fi bestial metal-borderlining-on-noise chaos we’ve seen from the band so far is out the window entirely (or almost), replaced by a massive, thick and crystal clear production putting on full display a band at the top of their game and armed with an insane arsenal of destructiveness and inventive. Fear not, the evil, blackened, filth-riddled Blasphemy/Beherit-worshipping chaos from the band’s demos isn’t gone at all. It’s still ravenously there, but it’s just augmented to unrivaled levels, taking on a new life entirely and serving a whole new purpose with the aid of a new found surrealistic death metal sensitivity borrowed from technical bands like Demilich and Time Ghoul, and of a newly acquired form of songwriting that seems fare more experimental and ambitious than in the past. This behemoth song displays clear prog influences in its imposing length and in how it develops, exploring various moods and sprawling across a vast canvas with intimidating unpredictability, without ever visiting the same place twice. It just keeps going, morphing and mutating in and out of itself as if it were a collection of songs within a song.
We don’t want to spoil it further or sound redundant, as its an experience to be endured and absorbed via careful listening, but one thing is for sure, if “Ts’ono’ot” is the new form of Ch’ahom, and more of this is coming, then we’re all in for something potentially devastating lurking head. In the meantime you can grab “Ts’ono’ot” cassettes from Sentient Ruin HERE or HERE.
