THERE WERE HEROES AMONGST US

The Republic of Macedonia or now more often referred to as New Macedonia due to the conflict with the Greek province that takes offense to the name, is not exactly a place that comes to mind when thinking about various forms of progressive rock. If any acts come too mind it would be from the area now called Macedonia but from the former Yugoslavia with Leb i Sol and Den za Den topping the list however not too much in recent times.

Well here's one for the post-rock world anyways. KHARA emerged from the city of Kumanovo and is the quartet of Filip Mihajlovski (guitar), Filip Stojkovski (guitar), Milan Trajkovikj (bass) and Emil Packovski (drums). So far the band has released two albums with this debut THERE WERE HEROES AMONGST US released in 2016. This all instrumental affair may be atypical of its geographical origin but as far as the music is concerned very typical in the style of post-rock that evolved from the Mogwai, Explosions In The Sky and God Is An Astronaut playbook.

This album features six tracks that implement slow building two atmospheric guitars, a bass and drum interplay with dreamy ambient backgrounds. More chill than rock on this one but when heavier passages spring to life they feature heavy guitar riffing with distortion and high pitched guitar sweeps not too far from what some of the neo-proggers engage in. This tear jerking tug of an album is really an emotive one and its stated goal is to evoke the life as it is, a cycle winding between sorrow and joy. Well, OK now!

THERE WERE HEROES AMONGST US is a competent slice of post-rock but not a very innovative one in the least. What KHARA has proven here is that it can imitate its heroes and not much else but the production is excellent and the subtleties of the tones, timbres, percussive accoutrements and other pings and pongs make for an entertaining listening experience. This isn't something i'd go out and buy or even want to listen to again really but it is excellent background music. Just not enough going on to make this one really stand out but everything is excellent in presentation even if its by the books in the making.