Be honest. If you were one question away from winning the jackpot on a TV quiz show and the smug, over-smiley host asked you, “what is the capital of Angola?”, would you really be going home with a massive cheque or just left stood there sullen and regretful, wishing you’d paid more attention in Geography class?

A predominantly Portuguese-speaking country in southwestern Africa is definitely one of the more obscure locations to find a stoner doom metal trio but that’s where Luanda-based Kishi were formed six years ago. After making waves with their independently released debut album Depois da Meia Noite a year later, the band was forced, like so many others, into an enforced hiatus due to the Covid outbreak of 2020, parting ways with their drummer in the process.

Now the band return with the appropriately titled Khaos (Mongrel Records), an entertaining five-track EP to help get them back on course. Using the pandemic, social chaos, war, and personal struggles as inspirations, Kishi opens the record with ’69 Feiticeiros e 14 Bruxas’ (Sixty-Nine Wizards and Fourteen Witches), a song rooted in Angolan mythology. With fast-paced and aggressive riffs courtesy of axeman Bruno Baz, vocalist Manel Kavalera doesn’t sound too far removed from his near-namesake Max Cavalera of Sepultura, the song slowing down to a sinister Black Sabbath style crawl towards the end.

Released earlier this month, the mid-paced single ‘Dead Lost Rumbled’ possesses more than a hint of Corrosion of Conformity with Kavalera showcasing a diversity of vocal styles ranging from clean tones to a harsh rasp and low end death metal gutturals. ‘Kill the Beast While It’s Wounded’ features machine gun riffing combined with ringing open chords while Kavalera sounds like the result of an inhuman experiment using Cronos, Mike Muir and Tom G. Warrior as test subjects. The no-nonsense blast of ‘Pornographic Strategy’ reeks of attitude before the EP climaxes with the thundering bluesy stoner metal of ‘Mona Caxito’.

A riotous collision of stoner, doom, thrash, and death metal with nineties alt-rock influences and flourishes of psychedelia thrown in, Khaos is a veritable rollercoaster of differing styles and ideas. And while this kind of colourful eclecticism could also be interpreted as fledgling indecision, the band still has more than enough time, talent, and infectious enthusiasm to really put their name on the map.

Buy the album here:

https://mongrelrecords1.bandcamp.com/album/khaos

7 / 10

GARY ALCOCK