On May 14, 2026, Madrid hosted a night of international metalcore with Headwreck, Greyhaven, KNOSIS and PALEDUSK.
Before PALEDUSK’s turn, the venue had already gone through two very different sets, but one of the performances that had raised the most curiosity among a good part of the crowd was still to come: KNOSIS, the project led by Ryo Kinoshita.
As the technical team finished the final adjustments on stage, the iconic Wii tune (“Mii Channel Theme”) played through the speakers, filling those last few minutes with smiles and the anticipation of seeing Ryo up close.
For many in the room, his name was still tied to an important chapter in Japanese metalcore thanks to his years fronting Crystal Lake. KNOSIS, however, was not a project built on looking back. Since Ryo announced it in 2022 with the line “Know that you know nothing about me”, the band has shaped a drier, darker and more direct sound, with an unmistakably personal weight behind it.
KNOSIS stepped onstage to the opening chords of “Gen Shinmon”.
Ryo came out with a greeting in Spanish:
“¿Cómo estáis, Madrid?” (“How are you, Madrid?”)
The breakdowns came quickly. The sound was so precise it almost felt like the studio version, and every cut landed exactly where it needed to. Ryo moved from side to side, coming close to the edge of the stage to stay near the crowd from the very first moment.
With “Seisai”, the mood changed. Part of the crowd went from headbanging to dancing almost without transition, moving their arms to the rhythm.
Ryo addressed the audience in English:
“How do you feel, Madrid?”
The answer to his question came with a jump from the front rows, enough to pull the rest of the room along with it. Arms up, the floor growing more animated, and KNOSIS mixing heavy breakdowns with melodies that, at moments, felt as if they had come straight from an electronic club night.
The intro to “Imioni” opened with a warning: “Watch me raise hell, the Devil don’t need no crystal”. Just a few seconds of tension were enough to draw every eye back to Ryo, who was pointing across the floor while repeating the song’s most recognizable line with a special addition:
“What do you want? What do you want, MADRID?”
He threw it toward different parts of the crowd, letting the response grow before the band and the whole room came in together.
With “Kamigurai”, the set moved into a section driven more by Ryo’s gestures, as if he were a leader giving orders to his army.
Jumps, arm movements and rhythm changes that the crowd tried to follow from the floor while the band locked into every cut with precision.
The final scream tore through the whole room before Ryo let out a “muchas gracias” (“thank you very much”) to close the song.
From the floor, fans began chanting his name as if they were at a football match:
“RYO, RYO, RYO!”
The music stopped. The lights dimmed.
Ryo waited a few seconds and, smiling, asked “¿cómo estás?” (“how are you?”) in Spanish.
Then he switched to English and asked the crowd to open up the floor: what began as a mosh pit ended up becoming an epic wall of death.
“Kushizashi” began, and the two sides that had formed under Ryo’s orders crashed into each other in the middle of the room. In a space like Revi Live, that kind of moment feels very close: the distance between the stage and the floor is minimal, and from where we were, we ended up inside the same scene as the audience and the band.
It was one of those moments every metal show needs: the room split in two, Ryo directing from the stage and the final hit bringing both sides together in the center.
Before “Dokunuma”, Ryo spoke a little more to the crowd. He said it was great to be there as the guest act for another Japanese band and introduced the song by playing with the word “doku” (“poison” in Japanese). He said it was a perfect chance to play it, and that if anyone knew it, this was the moment to sing along.
And you could definitely tell the crowd knew it!
In the chorus, the “tonight, tonight” that Ryo was singing grew from the floor until the audience was almost carrying it for him. It was not just a chant from the front rows: it could be heard from the back as well. The response was so strong that Ryo ended up holding the mic out toward the room so they could keep the song going.
But the concert still had one of its strongest moments left.
As the intro to the next song began, Ryo only needed one line to make the room react:
“EVERYBODY KNOWS this song…”
It was “Fuhai”, the collaboration with Yukina from HANABIE.
The reaction was immediate: many people pulled out their phones to record the moment. In Spain, HANABIE., KNOSIS and Crystal Lake have built a strong connection with fans of Japanese metal through appearances around the country and at festivals such as Resurrection Fest.
That connection was felt in Madrid too: several faces recognized the song instantly and, for a few minutes, a little of that Viveiro atmosphere slipped into the room.
Ryo eventually came down to the floor without missing a line. The front rows moved aside to let him through and immediately closed around him again, while the band kept the song going from the stage. Just a few centimeters from the crowd, Ryo kept singing surrounded by phones filming from close range, people jumping and heads moving around him.
The ending stretched out almost a cappella before giving way to “Yakusai”, which kept the intensity up until the close.
Ryo thanked the audience again, the band held the final stretch without letting the pace drop, and the set ended after around forty minutes. From the floor, voices could still be heard chanting his name while the stage was being changed over for PALEDUSK.
