Knut
Challenger

Metal? Post-hardcore? Noise? The boundaries between these genres have been demolished by many bands, but never with such overwhelming technical expertise and boundless rage as the Knut achieve on this album. Hydrahead is now synonymous with experimentation, and Challenger proves it to us. The Swiss band (from Geneva) creates an incredibly heavy sound with a thousand frenzied shards exploding in every direction, yet also with sharp riffs repeated in a mathematical way to the point of exasperation. The voice, almost needless to say, expresses malevolence and fury.

In short, a full-fledged sonic assault perhaps not easy to assimilate but so fascinating that it shakes every human being; this is because the melody gradually emerges from the monstrous rhythmic progression. Nothing in Knut's music is static or still, everything is movement, transformation, organized chaos. It's evident in every track that the band is not new to the scene; in fact, they have been active since '94 and have behind them an endless series of EPs plus an album titled Bastardizer. But here the sound is more evolved, more complex, yet at the same time more direct and "dirty". The songs are varied and quite different from each other. It moves from ultra-complex pieces, odd in every break and full of absurd notes crashing here and there (Whacked Out), to almost grind outbursts (Repressed) or to more intimate and paranoid pieces (Neon Guide).

There are two songs outside these coordinates: "58.788", a mantra for electric guitar and feedback, and the final and magnificent "March", a long 19-minute suite that wanders through dissonant musical lands reminiscent of the most troubled Neurosis to then shake with a final and bewildering burst of anger. The Knut of Challenger ultimately speak a multiform, obsessive, claustrophobic, intensely violent language that is light-years away from the image of serenity exuded by the Swiss Confederation. In short, Challenger represents true and concrete innovation for extreme and heavy sounds (and not fake heavy, fake extreme, fake rebellious). Knut just play. Actually, Knut raze everything they find to the ground. The question now is: are you ready to accept the challenge?