Kess'khtak - "Unwritten Rules Prevail" (Art Gates Records, 2018)

Band: Kess'khtak
Title: Unwritten Rules Prevails
Genre: Death metal/Grindcore
Time: 22 min
Year: 25th May 2018
Rating: 70/100












Another new EP, after three years from the previous one, for this Swiss quintet called Kess'khtak (what a unpronunceable moniker, don't you think?) that have still to release their first full-lenght album even though they were founded in the now far 2007.

Recently released by Art Gates Records, "Unwritten Rules Prevail" contains 7 songs in which there is a death/grindcore onslaught clearly influenced by bands such as Napalm Death and Misery Index with some hardcore influences, that you can already hear from the use of two singers (Florian and Mathieu), who offer a vocal annihilation formed by a terrific series of screams and growls. The songs, that last always around the 2 minutes and 30 seconds of lenght, are full of aggression and blast-beats but without forgetting to play through a dynamic way so to include, from time to time, some groovy parts that reminds me a lot of the NYHC à la Cro-Mags.

In the mid of the tracklist, there is a mid-tempo song called "Of Roaches and Rats", where Kess'khtak (but what the fuck is the meaning of this impossible moniker?) demonstrate to be a little strange. In fact, it has some bizzarre features thanks to the guests DJ Oxsa with his absurd vinyl cuts during the central part of the track, and Bastien C. Anthony that, for it, made a very curious outro with some samples. Another strange feature comes from the closing number "Nihilism 2.0", that, in theory, lasts until 4 minutes and 15 second but, in practice, it ends near the 7th minute after a loooong silence broken by some grotesque vocals.

In the end, "Unwritten Rules Prevail", described by the same band as "a sad tale on the deplorable status of our world, enslaved by greed, hatred and idiocy", promise good things for the future days to come. Sure, this EP isn't perfect since I don't like very much the slow, paranoid and TOO usual "normal" end of "Nihilism 2.0". Additionally, I think that Kess'khtak (now this moniker is going to be very easy to write haha!) lacks something to be more effective, so I suggest to them to play some guitar solos (now completely absent into their songs) in order to give to their music a deeper sound as well more dynamics. And, above all, I hope they'll finally release a full-lenght album, now very justified by their experience gained in these last times also through something like 150 live gigs around the world by playing even in very exotic places as Cuba and Iceland! below you can watch the official lyric video of the opening track "Born with a Curse")

P.S.:

for the truth, the band never released an album in according to Metal-Archives while, for Art Gates Records, they have 2 full-lenght albums into their discography. What is the truth? And what are these full-lenghts?

Tracklist:

1 - Born with a Curse
2 - A Late Sense of Relief
3 - The Ordeal
4 - Of Roaches and Rats
5 - Unwritten Rules Prevail
6 - Algorithm of Hate
7 - Nihilism 2.0

Line-up:

Florian Durand - vocals
Mathieu Mangola - vocals
Fouad Ilias - guitars
Julien Leluc - bass
Adrien Roll - drums

FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/kesskhtak/
BandCamp: http://kesskhtak.bandcamp.com/
Art Gates Records: http://www.artgatesrecords.com/