First album for Knosis.
Created in Japan by Ryo Kinoshita (vocals) following his departure from Crystal Lake, the musician is joined by Yosh (Survive Said The Prophet) on songwriting, Daiki (Made in Me) on guitars, as well as Kazuya “Sugi” Sugiyama (coldrain), Yasui (Prompts), Moroishi Kazma (Masterjia II, Shiggy Jr.), and Kosuke Tano (bass) for live performances to bring his first album GENKNOSIS to life.
We start off with dissonance in GENKNOSIS, an introductory track that is initially quite oppressive but is eventually joined by Ryo’s vocals announcing SHINMON, the first big hit in the form of heavy, syncopated riffs filled with heady harmonics. The band wastes no time in unleashing all its rage with a frantic and ultra-aggressive rhythm section, but also a more dreamy passage before the final wave, before moving on to the explosive FUHAI, where the band is joined by Yukina (Hanabie), who helps them dress up their devastating riffs with her unique vocals and screams. The break is one of the dirtiest of the year, but the vindictive chorus takes over before moving on to YAKUSAI, which borrows much the same recipe, but with calmer passages that quickly become intense, then SEISAI offers a more modern approach infused with Trap and other cybernetic elements to dress up the fury. The synths are also very effective on the hazy moments with KURUIBI’s Alternative influences, which flows very naturally and offers us a few more soothing moments before returning to saturated and suffocating violence and Trap for IMIONI and its rather heavy atmosphere complemented by Ryo‘s multifaceted vocals. The track is short but extremely effective, giving way to the very gentle start of DOKUNUMA, which takes over and offers us a much more punk rock-oriented sound coupled with intense vocals in the first part, then we return to metalcore for a central mosh part before returning to tranquility, which is broken by TANEBI and its simple but violent riffs. The band’s influences are quite diverse on this track, which easily switches from clean vocals to screams and leads us to ANGETSU, the last composition with airy touches reminiscent of ballads that transport our minds until they ignite and become virulent again, but which ends in tranquility.
Violence? Knosis knows how to do it. Gentleness? Knosis knows how to do it. Combining the two and making GENKNOSIS an extremely well-paced album? Mission accomplished. Although a little short, its tracks are real uppercuts!
90/100