Images of Khepri

On Images of Khepri,Khert Neter give you roughly 30 minutes of midpaced Domination-era Morbid Angelesque metal, done with a slightly Middle eastern tinged flair. To be honest, little on this album,save the furiously nimble Everdreaming God,qualifies as being death metal, in the sonic sense of the word. The songs are mostly midpaced,simple minded affairs interspersed with a thrashy riff every now and then. The drums are controlled with very little blasting and a steady double bass backed rhythm kept up,which contributes greatly to the death metal aspirations of the sound. Considering this,the music on this album does manage to convey an amazing sense of venom and anger. The music is death metal in the sense of the menacing and oftentimes mystical atmosphere that it conjures up. Credit goes,in no small part, to the awesome vocal work done by Lars Holm. Clearly influenced by the great Dave Vincent, his growls spew out utter disgust and present an aweinspiring persona to the sludgy music. The vocals weave in and out through the space provided by the frequently laidback speed of the riffing and create a truly majestic swamp-like tapestry.
There are some 'suspicious' spoken word bits and stop-start patterns strewn throughout the album but they compliment the music so supremely and always give up rein to the almighty riff. And when they do,you can't help but start nodding your head,keeping time and growling along.
Khert Neter represent the true underground in every sense of the word. This is death metal having substance trump over stunts. Check them out and spread the word.

It is unfair to label some albums as ‘death metal’; quality albums that go unheard because nobody wants to listen to them in fear of being treated to bland, generic death metal. This is one of them.

Imagine Nile, slowed down. That’s basically what we’ve got here; slow-midspeed death metal with some Egyptian styling, but with an extra helping of awesomeness. No shortage of slow, pumping sections with awesome, headbang-worthy guitar riffs. You may also be pleasantly surprised on your first listen of this album to hear some terrific melodies and harmonies. Occasional guitar solos appear when appropriate. Adding a lot to the feel of the album is the extremely fitting, evil vocal style that isn’t burdened with a low, gurgly sound that gets lost in the mix.

Speaking of which, the mixing is dead perfect. No instruments are drowned out by the others, and the vocals sit perfectly in the middle without being overbearing. The guitars have a tough tone, and are loud. The bass is felt rather than heard, and the drums just kick your ass. The drum tone reminds me of Cryptopsy.

The album is not perfect, however. It comes with a few flaws, but definitely nothing to put you off listening to it. It is very short lived, clocking in at just under half an hour. While this isn’t a fatal flaw, a bit more material would have been nice. Also, some of the fast parts don’t seem to fit in with the rest of the album, and in a way, take away from the experience. The only other obvious problem I can think of is the nu-metal sound of the verses in Illusion of Life, but the rest of the song is kick-ass enough to make up for it.

This album is a real gem; definitely worth picking up if you’re sick and tired of listening to regular death metal and want something interesting and exciting.