KNOWHERE – The Mascot

If I had to use a word to try to make a resume of the things I perceived from this awesome Swiss band I would use the word “intense”.
KNOWHERE was formed in Uster (Switzerland) in 1992 by Zappi (guitar, effects), Phillippe (guitars) and Dany (Bass) originally playing grindcore and then turning to Black Metal.
In fall 1999, KNOWHERE changed got a new bass player, Arlette “Eiselfe“ H.D., who created the necessary bass lines on a keyboard at first, and then changed the keys for a 5-string bass.
Extremely concerning and supportive to their local scene, KNOWHERE founded the “E.L.K.S. – Syndicate” with another 3 bands in order to support and promote the underground metal movement, and they have been quite successful doing it so far.
With their latest production entitled The Mascot, KNOWHERE makes an awesome display in composition, artwork, and musical skills.
In The Mascot, this band has achieved what many others try and most of the times fail to get: proper atmosphere without keyboards, which is great since most of the Black Metal “big names” tend to depend on keyboards to make their songs sound dramatic or to simply create the atmosphere.
For an album that took 3 years in the making, The Mascot sets KNOWHERE as an original, creative band that has developed that special sense to explore their own music and find the way to give more in their compositions.
KNOWHERE is not the kind of band that establishes beats out of nowhere, or inserts melodies without a reason; in The Mascot everything has a place and a time, the songs flow naturally even when they have many changes in the songs.
The Mascot begins powerfully, and stays in the same pace for a couple of songs (maybe a different order in the tracklist would have been good); Great displays of creativity can be found throughout the album but specially in songs like Drowning, To Extinguish The Stars, The Spot Lite Men (my favorite song of the album) and Tempest 9.21.5.1 which has the best melody in the album in my opinion.
The Mascot is not plain. KNOWHERE knows when to play without distortion, and still keep the general atmosphere but always with the intention of crushing your skull afterwards.
This KNOWHERE’s album is really good, it has everything that any BM fan can be looking for, as a bonus it has great original artwork, special calligraphy and it comes on a DVD case. Recommended.