Artist: Koh
Album: The Censor EP
Year: 2008

The first day of the 'Viva La Pola! 2008' festival included mainly punk bands. Therefore, I was surprised to find out that there was an industrial metal band playing that evening as well. Koh turned out to be a positive surprise in the late hours of that day (night?), and definitely worth it to spend a few kunas on. Some basic information about them: Koh is a band hailing from Karlovac, Croatia, which was formed in 2003. Existing out of five people, they mix wide influences such as Tool, Nine Inch Nails, Aphex Twin and Soundgarden together. This EP, named 'The Censor EP', is their very first release.

'Use You' is the first track on the release. It's an easy listening track, which includes quite some old school influences. It contains strong riffing, recogniseable vocal lines and subtile though exceptional FX works. The powerful drumming fits the track excellently. 'The Censor' comes up next. It's a bit more atmospheric, driven on a powerful bassline and dark vocal lines. Overall the song is accessable, and contains influences from old school gothic rock to modern atmospheric metal. The outro of the track is very beautiful. 'Thoughtful Animal' is the most uptempo track of the record. It opens with industrial FX works, to be followed by strong riffing and heavy drumworks. Although its the shortest song on the release, it's also probably the most experimental one and it contains many elements such as a driven guitar solo, wicked FX sampling, softer passages swapping with louder ones and a modern and catchy chorus. The release ends with an instrumental outro, which includes elements from ambient to industrial, mixed with subtile electronic works and soft guitars at the end of the track.

On 'The Censor EP', Koh exposes some very skillfull and diverse songwriting. For example, on 'Use You' they move from more complex instrumental passages to more simple and old school couplets and chorusses, without making it sound unappropriate. As well, the guitarsolos hidden in 'Use You' and 'Thoughtful Animal' are extremely wellplaced, and are elements that you barely hear in old school driven bands. All this together make Koh a 'hard-to-paste-a-label-on'-band, which will definitely affect fans of Nine Inch Nails, Killing Joke and even Nirvana, who are open minded enough for some more modern touches.

With 'The Censor EP', Koh proves to be an act to keep a closer eye on for sure. Basically, the only downside of this EP is that it only contains a small 19 minutes of music!

Vote: 90 / 100

Gerardo

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