![]() ![]() “Omni” opens with a skipping pulse that feels like it could induce tachycardia, eventually settles into a trap beat and then plunges back into discord-it sounds a bit like a corrupted MP3 of a TNGHT song. In practice, this can feel a bit like putting on a soothing face mask after an exfoliating scrub. With a few exceptions, Duma has two distinct halves: the most frantic songs are front loaded while the songs on the back half are more meditative, though just as unflinchingly dark. ![]() ![]() His throat-shredding vocals are often the only constant in these songs as tempos shift, tracks drop in and out of the mix, and waves of noise advance and recede. Khanja, meanwhile, can howl like a black metal vocalist, bark like a metalcore singer, or even yelp with a kind of frenzied glee. He sometimes employs recordings of hand drums as well, though even these are usually played at inhuman tempos. As a composer, Karugu is an agent of chaos: these songs are crammed full of pummeling bass hits, stacked polyrhythms and other violently rhythmic sounds-it’s easy to picture an Ableton grid crowded with overlapping drum tracks. Duma goes even further, dispensing with any allegiance to genre, though the band draws liberally from black metal, power electronics, grindcore, drone and even hip-hop. Khanja’s previous band, Lust of a Dying Breed, pushed speed metal into industrial territory: their final release traded in blast beats for the jittery sound of programmed drums. Both Khanja and Karugu are veterans of Nairobi’s thriving metal scene. ![]()
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