KNEE

Knee is the debut studio album from Danish Avant garde metal/rock act Düreforsög ( translates into Animal Testing). Knee is a classic album in Danish music history first and foremost because it sounds like nothing else that has ever come out of Denmark. A strange mix of extreme styles ensures that you´re in for an interesting listening experience.

The music is not for faint hearted souls as it is a mix of brutal, heavy and mostly mid to slow paced death metal parts ( those parts sometimes remind me of the breakdowns practised by a band like Dying Fetus) and avant garde rock parts with lots of fast percussion playing. The vocals from Boriz Schiøler are very varied and alternates between mouse-like shrieking singing to deep brutal death metal growling. Boriz Schiøler also uses his voice in a more ordinary way though. A very interesting vocalist. All five songs from the Demo Tape Replacing Hinges Or... (1995) are also present in newly recorded versions on Knee and two of those demo songs are actually favorites of mine on the album. Me, Myself & Ear is a great song with almost Snake ( Voivod) like vocals and it´s great to hear Düreforsög doing something different. There's Something Inside My Knee just needs to be given a special mention for the energy level and sheer aggression. What a great energetic song. Energetic is in fact one of the most fitting words that can be used to describe the music on Knee. From start to finnish Düreforsög never lets up. This is a relentless album so don´t look for breathers. The lyrics are weird and at times funny. Düreforsög is not the kind of band that takes themselves very seriously. That doesn´t mean that the general quality of the music suffers though.

The musicianship is outstanding. The guys in the band were no more than 19-20 years old when they recorded this album and just listen to what they are playing. They are extremely skilled musicians. Rune T who is credited for playing on Rubbish needs to be mentioned for his outstanding percussion skills. This guy could have played with Zappa that´s how good he is IMO. Unfortunately he would leave the band after this album.

The production is very good. Not excellent but very good. The vocals are a bit low sometimes when Boriz is not growling but it´s a minor flaw. It´s noteworthy that Peter Schneidermann aka Peter Peter (Sods, Sort Sol, Bleeder) is credited as producer on Knee.

Knee is a pretty original album allthough influences from every project Mike Patton has ever been involved in is apparent. I will mention Mr. Bungle and Tomahawk. The music on Knee is not as out there as the music practiced by Mr. Bungle though so if you like your avant garde rock/ metal with a somewhat easier approach Knee might be the answer. I know I have enjoyed myself greatly with this album and I´ve considered giving Knee a rating somewhere between 3 and 4 stars. I´ll make it a small 4 star rating though. It´s very rarely an album makes my body move in spastic movements ( that´s what it looks like when I dance) and for that they deserve that extra star.

( By the way. Notice that beautiful childish cover art. Just hilarious when you know that you can expect death metal growling and avant garde rock parts inside)