Kos is another creation of the musician Knappheit who is responsible for bands such as Red Right Hand Of Plague, Great Tribulation, Asiratic Lithomancy and Thirsting Ampoule and the maintainer of the Elf Eggs label.
‘Cross Leech’ is the third demo, it contains 3 tracks and a playing time of over 23 minutes and is limited to 35 copies.
Whereas the first two demos were heavily influenced by strains of Von, Beherit, Profanatica and Demoncy, ‘Cross Leech’ contains massive monolithic Funeral Doom riffs that slow down the music considerably. There are still fast and chaotic parts in the songs but they drip with vicious Sludge influences.
The entire demo radiates this unworldly emptiness which is a drastic change from the previous recordings. ‘Cross Leech’ is more diseased, more subterranean, more hypnotically repetitive, while the songs are now over 6 minutes long. The production is still lo-fi and raw, though, a declaration: “This is the filth I make”.
‘Cross Leech’ is Kos at its slowest, heaviest, and most suffocating. The Black/Death filth remains intact, but the pace of decay has changed, no longer a frantic assault, but a slow, crushing collapse, like a carcass sinking into a swamp.
Fans of rotten sludgy doomish primitive Black Metal really ought to listen to this one; Kos disciples probably already have a copy of the demo.
