I was amazed to see a small band that belongs to a small label sending a professional package for its album. The album comes in a digipack version and it contains three A4 copies with everything a reviewer may need. This definitely made me have a good opinion before even having listened to the album. Now, what's left is to see whether the band can kick my ass with some heavy tunes...

KENOS hails from Busto Arsizio, Italy (at least that's what I read somewhere. Their story goes back to 1996, when the band's former members Domenico Conte and Marcello Fachin decided to form the Death Metal band UNDERWISE. The band's line up was completed with members from Italian underground bands like ARACHNES and DRACONA and in 2001 they changed their name to KENOS.

With this new line up and the new horizons it opened for the band, KENOS released their first EP, Rigor Mortis. After two demo CD's and a full-length album in 2004, the band signed with the Italian label Lucretia Records to release it sophomore effort The Craving. KENOS music is a bit hard to describe since the Italians feature many different elements. Their basic element is classic Death Metal (mostly European), which has been enriched with Prog touches, heavy US modern riffing and some slight melodic breaks that manage to make this album avoid mediocrity. I think that if melody was absent from this album, we would have to do with one more common Death Metal band.

The tracks have moments that are totally different the one from the other, and that's what gives me hope that KENOS will be a name that we will hear about all the time in the near future. For example D-Mansion is a classic sample of NWOSDM/Metalcore, while Teaben Rising begins as a classic Death Metal tune, but contains some catchy moments that will remind you of bands like MACHINE HEAD and THE HAUNTED.

The sound is also really good, something that adds quite some heaviness, as well as rawness to the overall result. The album did not manage to amaze me, but I listened to it plenty of times without getting bored at all. I think that KENOS have not yet taken full advantage of their abilities. I believe that their next work will be even better and Italy will be proud to be talking about one more great band (which in fact is not Power, Gothic or Black)!