Chovu are a Black Metal band formed in the one of the most dangerous areas of Nairobi, the slum of Shauri Ya Moyo.

In early 2020 the band was soon split in 2 due to the pandemic curfews and lockdown in Kenya which saw Nairobi become a prison for it’s residents. Lorde Death and Rot found themselves sharing a single room with no windows in an underground dungeon next to the filthy Nairobi river filled with sewerage and rats. Despite the unpleasant surroundings this made a great place to make music undisturbed. Using only a Roland Keyboard amplifier; electric guitar, bass and microphone -recording into their phones – they got down to work composing material for projects in multiple genres not only Black Metal.

Salesmen of the narcotic Khat diurnally, the band led a nocturnal existence like no-other – recording new material nightly aided by liberal consumption of the plant. By the lifting of the curfew the band had produced an anthology of work proportional to a volume of literature from their underground lair.

The band has chosen to resurrect folk tales of the gruesome variety from the various ethnicities within the region. “Mwikali” a tale of a forbidden love triangle, the first release, came out in May 2020 on “Afrometalokalypse Volume 1,” a heavy metal compilation of the who’s who of Kenyan bands of the last decade.

obsydianmedia.com