Knut

Terraformer

Written by: PP on 09/11/2005 02:49:06

From the very beginning, Knut's "Terraformer" intrigued me. They have developed a sound mixing heaven and hell together to create something so goddamn ugly you can't look at it, but yet so fucking beautiful you can't resist it. Their riffs aren't ugly, they're not particularly loud nor heavy either, but yet their music has a 'demonic' feel to it, as if the mere sound of the album was pure evil. This is where the quick reader would think "Oh, so it's (Satanic) Death Metal", but you couldn't be any more wrong than that. Their sound is painfully slow, and when you're listening to the album alone, it feels like hitting your head against a brick wall time..after time..after time..after time. Parts of the album blend in with your background making you believe that the sound is not coming out of your speakers but it is omnipresent - it is everywhere and I would imagine this is how it would sound like if the doomsday arrived right now. Obviously, the album sounds horrible from the prior description, but somehow the band holds a perfect balance between an atmosphere of the purest evil and something indescribably beautiful.

The vocals are very, very rare, and are present on only three tracks of the album. When they finally come, they won't surprise you, they won't shred your ears, nor will they make you feel uneasy. The same unspeakable evil is present on the vocals, almost as if Satan himself was delivering his message to the listeners, but yet somehow they compliment the songs so perfectly you couldn't imagine them not being there. However, when they're NOT there, you don't miss them either. Don't know about you guys but I call that perfect composition and the rawest possible talent out there.

"Terraformer" has that overall Meshuggah feel into it, where a similar riff is repeated over and over again, only to change into another similar riff and the whole album becomes a blur. But that's exactly what Knut are trying to achieve here; this is not an album where you pick two best tracks and listen to them in a row, this is an album to be treateted as an entity; it's a masterpiece to be listened from start to finish without any breaks in it. Once you do that a couple of times, the pieces start falling together. You start to realize why their song titles are named after world cities, and as the sound grows on you, your mind starts to wonder what these cities look like, while the evil soundscapes on the background effectively describe the inner ugliness of cities like "Seattle" and "Fallujah", but yet somehow tell you they can be beautiful at the same time. This is an album that challanges you to think, and more importantly, to FEEL. This is an album designed to create ambient soundscapes in order to trigger opposite emotions at the exact same time (Love/Hate). It will confuse you and clear your mind at the same time. You'll love it at the same time as you hate it, and you'll keep on listening on..and on.. and on till the end of your days.

To sum it all up, "Terraformer" is quite simply the best album you will never hear about.

8

Download: Evian, Wyriwys
For the fans of: Pelican, Neurosis

Release date 08.11.2005
Conspiracy Records
Provided by Target ApS

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