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Kaamos > Kaamos > Reviews
Kaamos - Kaamos

Mystical Rumblings - 83%

lostalbumguru, November 5th, 2023
Written based on this version: 2002, CD, Candlelight Records

It's really the primal howling on Doom of Man which goes somewhere weird in your brain, and makes your chest feel a bit uneasy. It's the sense of unease and the stench of the human condition being dug out and raked out and pissed on, that makes Kaamos such a powerful album. Really what we have here is a slightly blackened mix of Dismember, early Entombed, but dirtier and even groovier. Kaamos the band only released two and a bit albums and a bunch of demos, and it's a shame, since, if they'd hung around a little longer, they'd, have been a hipster favourite when extreme metal became safer and more well-known in recent years. Anyway we're not writing Kaamos off as safe metal, or easily digestible by trendy people, or easily made fashionable, despite the presence of a giddy excitement in Kaamos' music.

The metal performed by and on Kaamos is the real deal. It's fairly fast a lot of the time but not afraid to slow down and go dirty and doomy. Corpis Vermis is a great opening track, straight out of 1991, and shows that Kaamos isn't afriaiad to have a snippet of catchiness and bounce in their music, whether in fun riff ideas or casually enthusiastic guitar solos. An exciting feature of Kaamos is that the bass is actually there, and not just there, it actually has its own unique tone, and though it mostly follows the guitar lines, sometimes it ebbs into prominence with its own groove. If you played this album at a metal club, it's a certainty Kaamos would rouse all the longhairs, get rowdy beers spilled on leather jackets and get people asking the DJ for the bandname.

As muddy and swampy and occasionally dark-mystical as Kaamos is, it's also a lot of fun, and has some level of self-awareness around it, that it's ok, it's all ok, it's just rock music and it doesn't matter that much. I don't know how they manage to do serous, and fun, all mixed together and it all works, and doesn't sound insincere or tedious.

The Storm of Coming and Khem are short blasts of early 90s death metal, from the early 00s, loads of skank beats, hammering on the ride-bell, and lashing the hihats, crashes, and china, all the while keeping the double bass patterns speedy and punky. Sometimes you can be faster by not using blastbeats, and in any case it's all about providing a musical bedding for the excellent death growls, and possessed shrieking. The mix on Kaamos is great, powerful and warm, and chaotic, but not so hissy or boomy that the novelty fades and it becomes ear-fatiguing. It's also worth noting that most of the songs are quite short, and the album itself doesn't outstay its welcome. The only slight criticism is that the guitar solos are a little reedy sounding, and given they're quite occasional on Kaamos, giving them a little more girth and reverb would have been ideal. Overall though, Kaamos is great on headphones, designed to break your soundsystem, geared to be the heavy song at the end of a Pantera and Du Hast nightclub evening.

Curse of Aeons ends Kaamos, starts with an eerie melodic guitarline and carries on with all the Kaamos hallmarks, pounding drums, uncannyness, a sense of fun, excellent death growls, and delightfully present bass guitar.

Classic death metal record - 85%

dismember_marcin, April 30th, 2012

Every time I start to listen to this record, I always have only great memories about it. Kaamos in many ways is a special band to me, as they’re one of the first acts, which I featured in my old fanzine called Panzerfaust. I remember how excited I was when I got their “Curse of Aeons” demo way back in 2001 and did an interview with Konstantin for the same first issue. Oh, good old times, which still seem like it was yesterday, especially that when I listen to the music of Kaamos it didn’t get boring or whatever and despite the passing time, it still kicks ass seriously. Hell yeah, “Kaamos” is the debut album from those Swedish zombies and since we just passed on the tenth anniversary of its recording there’s no better time than to exhume this record and get slain by it once more.

And “Kaamos” truly slays. The opening track is obviously the best one in Kaamos’ short career, “Corpus Vermis” has possessing force and awesome riffing throughout, including the catchy and easily memorable chorus part, with which I guess you’ll scream the line of the lyrics. Right from the first seconds it’s obvious also that Kaamos is heavily infected by the old Swedish death metal bands and the likes of Unleashed (early), Entombed (early of corpse!!!!!!!) and Grave, but when going through the next songs also such acts as Sadistic Intent, Autopsy, Soulburn / Asphyx and early Death can pop up in your mind. Especially I tend to think of the works of Unleashed when listening to “Kaamos” as Kaamos has similar style of playing, if you think of how the rhythm section plays for instance and what the atmosphere on this album is. Luckily Kaamos avoids being a blind copycat, as their music contains much more ferocity, aggression and fast paces plus much more dynamics than Unleashed have ever had in their albums. You may be surprised how often those Swedes play in fast tempo, speeding up like an alcoholic in a car, running away from the police. And often they bring certain catchiness to their songs, making sure that they’ll all be memorable and deadly as hell. Side A of the vinyl has such killer anthems as “Corpus Vermis” and “The Storm of Coming” plus absolutely furious “Khem”. It also has a surprising introduction in “Doom of Men”, but I’ll leave that to you to hear what this is about. Anyway, “Doom of Men” itself is an incredible track, much slower comparing it to the previous ones, but that only makes it the heaviest song on the whole album and surely one of my favourites.

Side B of the LP (which by the way comes as a nice gatefold, with huge poster) has just four tracks, but that include another favourite of mine, which is “Curse of Aeons” from the demo. Then “Cries of the Damned” is another slower song, which evokes the creepy horror atmosphere in truly great way. Anyway, Kaamos fantastically embodied the old style of death metal and made so in the times, when this sort of playing wasn’t as popular as it is nowadays. Respect! Each of the nine songs, which have been recorded on “Kaamos” is an instant headbanger, each will welcome you with the finest, shredding riffs and thus I can assure you this is a damn brilliant album. It’s been a decade since Kaamos has spawned it and it still crushes, the more pity is that Kaamos is no more and that the album seems to be somehow underrated.

Pretty entertaining - 85%

demonomania, March 30th, 2005

This is not a bad album at all, always good to hear the ancient crushing power of Sweden, melody-free. There is certainly an old school vibe here, when listening I would equate it to a mix between OLD Grave and Sinister (not Swedes, I know) circa "Cross the Styx." The vocals are low as hell, I can certainly see the Immolation comparison, though not as monotonous, the drums are fast and need a little work - maybe it is just the production that makes them sound sloppy at times. The guitar has that classic distortion that is best heard on "Clandestine" or "You'll Never See," and the bass is suprisingly good and audible. I guess my biggest problem is the production - it is somewhat muddy, and though I know this style is supposed to sound like that, my complaint is that the faster songs don't have much individuality since we can't hear all the technique going down. The lyrics exemplify Swedish death metal - problems with subject/verb agreement, lots of stuff about doom and chaos and lunacy and evil - nothing new, but fun nonetheless.

Most of the disc is fast, but there are some great breakdowns and slow, punishing grooves. In fact, my favorite songs are the slow, painful ones - namely "Doom of Man" - completely awesome, stick in your head slow and brutal. Very funny, bizzarro intro - I guess this is a guy flipping out in Swedish, but it sounds like an outtake from the Indiana Jones movie TEMPLE OF DOOM. I expect the guy to yell out, "The blood of Khali!" at some point. The last track, "Cries of the Damned" is slow and kickass too - with some bells in the beginning (what would metal be without churchbells?), and a nice, but slightly less memorable, excruiatingly pummeling series of riffs.

I like the opener "Corpis Vermis" a lot, and the breakdown at the end of "Circle of Mania" is headbangtastic. But again, too many fast songs - maybe I just like my Swedeath slow and brutal. Still, a very listenable disc, and I am looking to pick up their most recent release. I'm sure some jackass on Ebay will sell it to me.

Successful debut - 80%

stefan86, February 15th, 2005

There seems to be a whole bunch of straight Death Metal acts coming out of Sweden these days. I myself couldn't be happier about that since these bands will soon outnumber all the Gothenburg bullshit that disgraced us the past few years. Insision seem to be the leaders of this DM pack but these guys certainly don't feel far behind.

The coolest thing about Kaamos is that they have an obvious amount of influence from early swedish Death Metal like Entombed and Dismember when it comes to riffing and drumming. They rely on their riffing while the growls are the icing on the cake, and a very solid icing at that. There is actually a fair dose of riffs that hit in an almost thrashy way, while not being Thrash in the real definition of the word. There is a bunch of US sounding guitar work thrown in as well. Drumming remains human and never goes into the incoherent übergrind mode that can be so annoying, just as I like it.

They stay faithful to the essence of their music all along, remaining dependant on riffing and paces. That is really what in the end makes this CD so solid. The guys remain coherent and consistent through-out. There aren't any tracks with changes that throw the general pace off and they don't run out of riffs. They do their thing and they do it well.

Another smart move is not making their debut longer than the 34 minutes of mayhem it is. The goal seem to be "all killer, no filler" and they've pretty much succeeded at this. While there are no real standout cuts there are no weak songs either. For fans of extreme music and especially early 90's swedish DM this is a treat.

One of the most promising Swedish acts! - 95%

Onirium, September 7th, 2004

KAAMOS are surely one of the most promising Swedish bands. Maybe some of you had heard of them before, they had recorded a promo tape, an EP and a very professional self financed demo achieving such a high response that Candlelight, known for signing well established bands like EMPEROR or ZYKLON, offered them a contract. Everybody who had listened their music were expecting something great, and fuck, they are not going to be disappointed at all! That's fucking raw Death Metal in its purest form, dark as only some early Swedish and American bands were able to do. They have influences from GROTESQUE and SADISTIC INTENT basically, but drums sound very much like early UNLEASHED sometimes, and I would say that they really like the second ENTOMBED album, 'Clandestine', because many riffs have reminded me of this album. The only thing that I don't like of the album is that it's too short, but it's so fucking intense and at the same time varied that if you pushed the repeat bottom of your stereo you could perfectly stay all the day listening the album and never getting bored. I think one of my favourite songs of the CD could easily be 'The Storm Of Coming', it's very straightforward; 'The Blood Of Chaos' is dark and hellish as you can't imagine… The album has been recorded at the same place that their demo tape but now with the help of Messiah Marcolin from CANDLEMASS who has worked as Sound Engineer. I think I don't need to say more, if you really enjoy listening old school Death Metal with feeling but not following any trend at all and (trust me) with their own sound, you should buy this album and then wait for their next one.

Originally written by myself for Xtreem Music