Surging through the human consciousness has always been a well of mysteries and intriguing happenings. Nothing is certain, nothing is complete. There have been voluminous dangers, obstacles, traps and tricks. The ancient traveller, possibly a super human or an entity highly evolved above the regular human, returns home and finds himself struggling to survive within a worldwide society the follows the path towards its end. For the traveller it is an anomaly that is hard to analyse, for us humans it is the state of affairs for better or worse. That is where my line of thought ended while listening to the debut venture, known as "Anomalia", of the rather new Norwegian band / project named KHONSU, signed to Season Of Mist. In general "Anomalia", created by the KHONSU's mastermind leader and multi-instrumentalist Steffen Gronbech (brother of the guitarist of KEEP OF KALESSIN, Obsidian Claw) and fronted by KEEP OF KALESSIN's frontman Thebon, presents one of the finest meeting grounds for various types of extreme Metal folded together in a cloud of progression and industrial fantasies. You might recognize it as generally Black Metal, yet you would have to dig deeper into Gronbech's mind's eye in order to discover that there are a lot of uncertainties. Believe me that these qualms are actually this project's special mystics.

Even though I am usually not fond of all the Industrial Metal stuff out there, purely material in the vein of OOMPH! or RAMMSTEIN, this here project turned out to be something else. "Anomalia" a few aspect of the Industrial type, especially the strong synths, samples and effects, yet its obscurity didn't base itself on the fusion of modern elements but rather on the manipulations done on the Norwegian kind of Black Metal as neither song presented anything of that particular genre as it was bred back in the early 90s. Furthermore, Gronbech assured that many worlds of extreme music would get their chance to reveal their faces out of the shades. I could also notice a few Gothic, Doom and a few modern Death instalments. The reason of this album being special is that Gronbech didn't exaggerate when it comes to the features. He kept a somewhat, weird, but decisive flow in order to protect the overall story he chose to convey for the listeners. Through "Darker Days Coming", "Inhuman States" and "Va Shia (Into The Spectral Sphere)" I could sense tenderness along with fearless brutality, a bright future convulsed by an unknown black torment that might disturb its existence. In overall, I liked the intensity or soreness of the music as those were excitingly parallel to the strong emotions conveyed by the composer. "Darker Days Coming" displayed like a perched prophecy with a selection of great dark riffing, unrelenting drumming and bristly vocals. "Inhuman States" seemed like a man's report of what he saw or what felt being a part of something that just made him feel wrong. Nor it wasn't emotional, this song was quite inspirational. "Va Shia (Into The Spectral Sphere)", the most musically assorted and challenging lengthy number, close down the gates into the mind of the traveler with dramatic sections and captivating music, rough but with a good measure of taste.

However, I would have preferred a different sound production in favor of this particular piece. In general it felt a little dim, lifeless on several points while the quite a few of the channels sounded as if those were a part of a home recording, especially the drums, which I assumed were programmed. On the other hand, when thinking about it, maybe Gronbech wasn't interested on coming forward with a production that would win hearts, as it is known that the material is much more valuable. Yet, from my end, the serving should have also been outstanding.

The KHONSU project made me appreciate that there a good things that can be achieved with contemporary Industrial Metal, as long as it is fused with the conventional Metal genres. "Anomalia" is a halo of grey above us all, it has its wicked ways to show many things that can be perceived and explained by anyone without even knowing if it is true or not, that is the beauty of it.