Khali - Khali
67%
Khali is an Italian progmetalband, founded in 2000 by bassist / songwriter Lorenzo Deho, whom some might know from his other band, Time Machine. Khali was created to realise ambitious, creative ideas which could not be realised with Time Machine. Khali made no secret of the fact that their self-titled debut was highly influenced by Queensrÿche’s ‘Empire’, which you can see by looking at the artwork of the two albums. As Queensrÿche, Khali produces semi-progmetal songs.
Kick-off to the album is ‘Another Day’. By composition not a bad song at all, but it lacks enthousiasm. No extra leads, no energetic solos, not even a change of speed worthy of mentioning... The vocals of Folco Orlandini sound good, although it is unable to fill the gap that ‘Another Day’ leaves behind. Moving!
‘Somebody Haunts Me’ is a song I rate higher than the somewhat steep opener. Its catchy chorus and addicting lead trigger my interest. The speed lies somewhat higher, but it’s still not of that rate that I can say: “Blimey, my camel”. No, seriously. ‘Somebody Haunts Me’ is definitely a good song, but still too pale if you ask me. It’s been 5 minutes and 2 seconds since I’d fallen asleep and at the moment I’m resuming my review – after being awakened by a sudden gap of silence – by mentioning that the opus ‘Wind Of Ages’, which consists out of two parts and covers roughly 11 minutes is somwhat linear and without pleasant surprises. Where Folco’s vocals sounded fitting in ‘Somebody Haunts Me’, they sound dull here and tend to drape on and on.
‘Heaven Again’ is another story. Folco’s vocals go sky-high in this here song, which pleases me greatly! The man really has some power in those vocal chords, but – I can hear you thinking – why doesn’t he use them more? The song itself is not really that much different from the previous ones, though. Still mid- to slow paced but with the 4-second-solo (starting at 4.23) they kind of surprised me again. That’s nice.
I think it’s safe to say that Khali did a lot of experimenting with the little elements inside the bigger structures of their songs. Subtile key passages make their run in ‘Wind Of Age’ and the melodies aren’t bad, little unexpected leads fly by in a few seconds and more of that kind of stuff.
The album is full of ups and downs, as the aforementioned little ‘surprises’ that liven up the record a little more. Unfortunately, this alone isn’t enough to be able to keep my attention for long. There is a lot of potential, but it just doesn’t show its full glory. I’m sure there are loads of fans of the band out there who might think otherwise, but a bit of diversity on the record wouldn’t have killed anybody ...I hope.
Line up:
‘Somebody Haunts Me’ is a song I rate higher than the somewhat steep opener. Its catchy chorus and addicting lead trigger my interest. The speed lies somewhat higher, but it’s still not of that rate that I can say: “Blimey, my camel”. No, seriously. ‘Somebody Haunts Me’ is definitely a good song, but still too pale if you ask me. It’s been 5 minutes and 2 seconds since I’d fallen asleep and at the moment I’m resuming my review – after being awakened by a sudden gap of silence – by mentioning that the opus ‘Wind Of Ages’, which consists out of two parts and covers roughly 11 minutes is somwhat linear and without pleasant surprises. Where Folco’s vocals sounded fitting in ‘Somebody Haunts Me’, they sound dull here and tend to drape on and on.
‘Heaven Again’ is another story. Folco’s vocals go sky-high in this here song, which pleases me greatly! The man really has some power in those vocal chords, but – I can hear you thinking – why doesn’t he use them more? The song itself is not really that much different from the previous ones, though. Still mid- to slow paced but with the 4-second-solo (starting at 4.23) they kind of surprised me again. That’s nice.
I think it’s safe to say that Khali did a lot of experimenting with the little elements inside the bigger structures of their songs. Subtile key passages make their run in ‘Wind Of Age’ and the melodies aren’t bad, little unexpected leads fly by in a few seconds and more of that kind of stuff.
The album is full of ups and downs, as the aforementioned little ‘surprises’ that liven up the record a little more. Unfortunately, this alone isn’t enough to be able to keep my attention for long. There is a lot of potential, but it just doesn’t show its full glory. I’m sure there are loads of fans of the band out there who might think otherwise, but a bit of diversity on the record wouldn’t have killed anybody ...I hope.
Line up:
Folco Orlandini – vocals
Joe Taccone – guitar
Lorenzo Deho – bass
Nick Rossetti – drums
Tracklist:
Another Day
Somebody Haunts Me
Cyberpleasure
Wind Of Ages (pt. 1)
Wind Of Ages (pt. 2)
Spiritual Distortions
Heaven Again
So Far Away
Will You Remember (bonus track)
