So for once we've actually had a proper band that has a career and though they were not the kind of music I would prefer, at least they weren't some scrotes with a three-track demo from Upper Volta. Let's see what kind of luck we have this week as we take our second trip into
Well, well, well! Looks like we're back to normal. What was that I said about demos? These guys have them, and three of them, but only up as far as 2006, with no albums, and with a name like that I am not going searching for them on YouTube; doubt I'd find them anyway but the idea of what I might stumble across (shudder!) --- no way man. Oh, they're from Brazil in case you were wondering.
On we go then.
Across the road, it would seem, to Chile.
That somewhat hard to read logo says Perverze, and yes, they're split up and have a demo tape. Gods of Metal, take pity on me! Third time lucky then...
Noisegrind eh? Sounds enchanting. Well, at least they have an album. Three, in fact. Guess we're looking into them then.
Name: Knelt Rote (don't ask me!)
Nationality: American
Subgenre: Black Metal/Noisegrind (oh joy!)
Born: 2008
Lineup: Gordon Ashworth (Vocals, Guitar)
Lucas Danner (Guitars)
Kevin Schreutelkamp (Bass, Vocals)
Elias Bloch (Drums)
Albums: From without (2008),
Insignificance (2010) and
Trespass (2012)
Live albums: None
Compilations/Anthologies/Boxets: None
There isn't too much information I can get on these guys, but from the description of their music I think it may be a short review. However I'm told their early albums were a mixture of “power electronics” (whatever that may be) and noisegrind, while the later ones see a move towards a fusion of noisegrind and black metal. Oddly enough, perhaps, it's that one, their most recent, that I'm going for.
Trespass --- Knelt Rote --- 2012 (Nuclear War Now! Productions)
Several reasons I've gone for this. First, I don't know what power electronics is but looking at the lengths of the tracks (all in the one to two minute range) I feel it may be pretty brutal and hard to even get any sort of idea as to what the music is like. The middle album has a track on it that is fourteen minutes long, and finally this is the only one that comes up on YouTube, Spotify and GPM both hiding and shaking their heads and asking me to please go away when I type the name in. So this is the one, like it or not, that we're stuck with, but in any case if I have to listen to any of Knelt Rote's albums, I would probably have ended up choosing this one.
Well we kick off with “Usurpation”, and it's the standard hammering of black metal guitars and a dark, scratchy voice probably reading a bus timetable or something (no lyrics available). I can hear the occasional riff makes its way through the general noise but there's nothing to write about as such, so far anyway. “Hunger” is pretty much more of the same, with a rather disturbing and disgusting noise at the end, like someone with a bad cold snuffling. Yuck. The next track is slower, more grindy and favours the bludgeoning approach rather than the stab-n-slash of the first two tracks, though “Passenger” does quicken its tempo about halfway through. That nasty sound is at the end of this one too.
“Succumb” is just a wall of noise, and there's nothing more I can tell you about that, while it battered into following track “Compress” and continued without my even realising we had switched tracks, so that tells you all you need to know. At least “Identical” does not live up to its name, opening with sound effects and then a slow, doomy, sullen guitar riff. It would need to be a little different, as it runs for almost eight fu
cking minutes! This slow grind lasts for about three minutes, so that's not bad, but then the next four are spent in faster thrash with attendant growls, so we're back to normal it would seem. Luckily for me, this leaves only two tracks, one of which is short, one of which is not.
“Interlude” has a nice sound to the title, and has a relatively restrained and atmospheric guitar opening, and in fact compared to the music Knelt Rote have been assaulting me with since this album began, it's mnelodic and even relaxing, with I think no vocals, which in this case is certainly a plus. As I said, it's short --- at least, in comparison to the closer --- at just over three minutes, while the last nail in the coffin comes in the six-minute-plus form of “Catalepsy”, as the band return to the pummelling attack they seem so used to. There is something of a guitar break in the second minute, but it doesn't last, and the overall effect is of being chopped to death by whirling helicopter rotor blades.
While someone screams gibberish at you.
TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS
1. Usurpation
2. Hunger
3. Passenger
4. Succumb
5. Compress
6. Identical
7. Interlude
8. Catalepsy
Nothing to say really: mostly just noise and anger and aggression and power. I can't even give them a pass based on their lyrics, as I did with Exhumed, because I can't find any. Just not for me, not even with my newfound semi-appreciation of black metal. If this is noisegrind, then file it away with grindcore under the heading DANGER: DO NOT LISTEN IF YOU ARE TROLLHEART!
I don't do half cleavers, so it gets a very grudging
