KHEROW (Malaysia)
Melodramatic Of Raging War
2003

Sarawak has some good bands which I noticed during the three years of my stay there. KHEROW is one of them. This is their debut, in the form of promoCDr. On the flyers stated that the promo contains one track but the one I have got there tracks. Probably the actual promo which is for sale at RM6/$3 will also contain the same tracks. Actually all are the same tracks, which the titled as 'Melodramatic Of Raging'. I am not sure why they did this. Perhaps to use more space in the cd-r? I don't think that is necessary since my CD player (and most of you too) can play the CD continuously and non-stop. If there are different version of the songs, I can't hardly notice any differences. As the flyers mentioned Sarcofago, Possessed, Slayer as the influenced the bands, you are right if you are guessing KHEROW plays black thrashing metal, except that they are less insane and sadistic than the gods that they are admiring. The song clocked for almost 6 minutes, with almost fair amount of 'calm' moment and chaotic speed metal attack. At times, the guitars remind me a bit of Immortal. The vocals is good, sounded really evil! The song was originally recorded in year 2000/2001 for a Sarawakian metal compilation project, but the label disbanded the project and let the bands release the songs themselves as demo, etc. It was recorded in a professional studio track by track but awkwardly the song here sounded quite raw, which is good for this kind of metal. The promo only comes with the promo laser color xeroxed cover and no info at all. By only listening to 1 song, you can't make accurate 'evaluation' on this band. But what I hear now is quite promising and definitely the next release is one of the releases I can't wait.
c/o A. Shahrizan Julaihi, 38 Jalan Laruh Barat, 93400 Kuching, Sarawak.
3.5/5