Artist: Knüth
Country: Russia
Label: Unholy Wormhole
Formats: Digital demo
Year: 2025
Ever since the band’s foundation back in 2018, this duo has been spawning demos, at least one per year. With this latest one they arrived at their tenth installment and as always, they have stayed true to their slightly experimental raw and utterly deranged sort of Black Metal. While Knüth’s core business hasn’t changed all that much, they have been improving their wicked art quite a bit with especially their last few demos being worth a listen.
With ‘Demo X (MMXXV)’ they have taken yet another step into the realms of awkward and unsettling Black Metal. This 18-minute ride starts off with a rather generic piece of Black Metal, but it doesn’t take long before we are treated to some extremely dark piece of droning ambient after which all hell breaks loose. Seemingly just in an improvisational sort of fashion they blend harsh Black Metal with droning elements and just plain quirkiness. As a result, on this newest demo Knüth sounds like a crazy blend between Woods Of Infinity and old Barathrum: going from a sluggish pace to blazing speeds with high pitched drunken howls and loads of almost jazzy dynamics.
With their almost impenetrable Raw Black Metal, Knüth has never been a band that would appeal to the masses, but with ‘Demo X (MMXXV)’ they have clearly surpassed themselves. Needless to say, this is by far their best recorded material to date. Strange stuff for strange people.
