A few months in, things were beginning to take off for the band. A limited 1000-disc run of the debut album 'Tsunami' was released and quickly sold out. It was reprinted and, pretty much instantly, sold out again. The band was taken by surprise by the phenomenal response and signed with a management company to enable them to keep focusing on the music, rather than the business.
Without having signed a record deal, Khoma started to work on the follow-up to 'Tsunami'. It soon became obvious that they had to do something about the line-up. As Khoma began as a side project, members often were scattered around the globe making it almost impossible to play live. The members didn't even consider themselves a real band, merely a project filling a musical void, something created because of a need to play together. Khoma decided to create two faces: one that writes, rehearses, and records songs and another that gathers to play live.
The band hail from varied musical backgrounds and all members still play in a number of different groups: Cult of Luna, The Perishers, and The Deportees to name three. With no pressure and total creative freedom, the members write the music they personally want to hear.
Besides playing music, all band members hold strong views on issues and ideologies spanning from anarchism, feminism and socialism to animal and environmental rights.
In creating their most recent music, the band have broadened their perspective and introduced new elements most notably cello and piano.
Jan Jämte - Vocals
Johannes Persson - Guitar
Fredrik Kihlberg - Guitar/Vocals/Piano
When the band signed to Roadrunner in 2005 and it became clear that the next records were going to be released outside of Scandinavia the band realised that the name Koma (under which they released their debut CD) was already taken – by quite a few artists! So, instead of changing to something else, the band simply changed the spelling to Khoma.
In April 2006 their second album 'the second wave' was released. It includes three songs from the debut.
The band recently made their UK festival debut on Sat 17th June 2006 at the Download Festival.
Hyenas
Khoma Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Raising death-brigades
As they swarm
As your voice falls in silence through the rain
You will know
Try to keep them out
Try to stay calm
Mark of beasts
Was this hidden from our view?
We all knew.
The lyrics of Khoma's song "Hyenas" are rich in symbolism and metaphors, evoking a sense of impending doom and existential dread. The opening line, "fall back to sleep," suggests a desire to escape reality, perhaps due to a feeling of helplessness in the face of a looming threat. This threat is represented by the "death-brigades" and "hyenas" that are "swarming" and attacking. These animals could be seen as symbols of humanity's darker impulses, such as greed, violence, or cruelty.
As the voice falls "in silence through the rain," we see the futility of resistance against these forces. Even as we "try to keep them out" and "stay calm," the "mark of beasts" is upon us. This could be a reference to the biblical "mark of the beast" from the Book of Revelation, which is said to identify followers of the Antichrist during the end times. The line "Was this hidden from our view? We all knew" suggests that the characters in the song may have been aware of the impending disaster but chose to ignore it or deny it until it was too late.
Overall, the lyrics of "Hyenas" create a sense of foreboding and inevitability, suggesting that even as we try to resist the darker aspects of our nature, they will ultimately consume us.
Line by Line Meaning
Fall back to sleep
Returning to a state of unconsciousness
Raising death-brigades
Summoning armies of the deceased
As they swarm
As they move together in a large group
As your voice falls in silence through the rain
As your spoken words become unheard in the midst of precipitation
You will know
You will become aware
Try to keep them out
Attempt to prevent their entry
Try to stay calm
Attempt to remain composed
Mark of beasts
Identifying mark of savage creatures
On the day all ends
During the apocalypse
Was this hidden from our view?
Was this concealed from our perception?
We all knew.
We all had prior knowledge
Contributed by James K. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Krzysztof Kostyra
why aren't you guys more popular? you are really amazing, you need to be known in alt-music world :)!
Juice !
One of my all time favorite songs.
Magnus Torell
This song is amazing...
Diogo Vieira
besides their album, do you guys know more music like this guitar melody? sounds something like melancholy, nostalgy, morbid, dont know how to explain
dahun lee
@punifu no problem, just some of the soundscape I enjoy hehe. I added another band/singer as well, if you get bored : )
punifu
@dahun lee thank you very much, underoath fan for some years now, but gonna check the other ones :D
dahun lee
and of course, check out their other band 'Cult of Luna' ('Passing Through - Acoustic', where they play outside in a snowstorm, is a favorite of mine)
dahun lee
a little late reply, but some of Underoath's softer stuff has a similar vibe (maybe something off of their 'Define the Great Line' album)
and for similar vocals, some of 'A Funeral for a Friend''s softer stuff is nice too. (Drive, History, Your Revolution is a Joke, Juneau (acoustic), Sonny, etc.)
Also 'From Autumn to Ashes''s softer stuff is pretty cool as well (Streamline, I'm the Best at Ruining my Life, No Trivia), and the same singer's other bands Biology (The Measure of my Worth, Public Art) and Tidal Arms (Several Circles is a good song imho)
BurnWitchBurn
Mi piace!
Mannuel Rojas
Que Buena xD