Khous - "Geroaren haziak" (Art Gates Records, 2018)

Band: Khous
Title: Geroaren haziak
Genre: Melodic Metalcore with Alternative and Groove Metal influences
Time: 65.58 min
Release Date: 16th November 2018
Rating: 54/100












After the dark metal band Arkaid, today is another incursion in the so-called "light metal" thanks to the excellent Spanish label Art Gates Records. In fact, these Khous are a Spanish quartet born in 2001 as an alternative metal band. With the years, they made their music in a more aggressive way so to be nowadays a metalcore band, as perfectly expressed into their "Geroaren haziak". This is their third album and, if I understood well, is the last part of a homonymous trilogy consisting also of the two EPs entitled "Itsukeria" (2013) and "Fedea" (2014). Important to say, all the tracks of both the EPs are into the same album with the result that, including also the new songs, it has an incredible amount of numbers. But into it you'll find a form of metalcore that I don't like so much...

Well, these 4 guys shows into "Geroaren haziak" a style that reminds me a lot of another similar band reviewed on these pages like the Italians Last Resistance. In simple words, Khous plays a (ultra)-melodic metalcore with many alternative metal as well groove metal influences. So, the songs are full of melodies, their pace is mostly focused on mid-tempos with some breakdowns but with very few fast parts, and the vocal department is composed of a lot of melodic clean vocals, screams and growls. Some little variations includes thrash metal up-tempos ("Heroiak"), Meshuggah tunes ("Jainkoen legea"), some dissonant riffs, and a song as "Mutua eta itsua" is quite dark and, for this, it's my favorite number of the album. Ha, mind you, the lyrics are completely sang in Basque since Khous comes from the Spanish region of Navarra, so that's why the songtitles sounds so strange!

But, as I said before, this form of metalcore isn't in my tastes because it's too melodic, modern and also not so aggressive for my broken ears. More important, we are talking about an album that contains even 18 songs for the beauty of 66 minutes of music that, to say the truth, isn't really creative and full of memorable moments to justify this so exaggerated duration, even though the second part of the album is a little bit better than the first one. Another problem comes from the fact that the songs could be varied better by playing, for example, some guitar solos but, unfortunately, these are completely absent throughout the album, and this is a real shame.

In conclusion, "Geroaren haziak" is a gigantic opus fit for the fans of bands like In Flames, Trivium and As I Lay Dying but, naturally, not for the other (extreme) readers of this 'zine. For me, it could be better with many fewer songs since 18 of them and 66 minutes are really too much but, as the album is now, I give unfortunately to it a low rating. And now let me review something more extreme that I need to destroy seriously my ears!

Tracklist:

1 - Arnatsu
2 - Eskutik Eskura
3 - Kondenatuen bidea
4 - Kateak
5 - Eboluzioan
6 - Itxaropen apurra
7 - I spilua
8 - Moztu
9 - Marra gorria
10 - Heroiak
11 - Jainkoen legea
12 - Homo
13 - Kontuz Ibili!
14 - Aintzineko Oihua
15 - Zenbat Hitaz
16 - Mutua eta itsua
17 - Nahia ta nahiez
18 - Bakoitzak

Line-up:

Iñaki Villanueva - vocals
Kupi - guitars
Hegoi - bass
Aritz Gonzalez - drums

FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/KHOUS/16950479998
Official website: https://khous.net/
Art Gates Records: http://www.artgatesrecords.com/