Earlier this year, I reviewed the excellent third full length by Swedish act Kongh (Sole Creation, also released via Agonia), but this review does not deal with a new album but with the band’s 2007-debut. The material was originally recorded for vinyl release via Sound Devastation at Teknikkompaniet with Peter Lundin, who worked with the band afterwards as well. It now gets re-released with a bonus-CD, which includes the band’s material from their demo, as well as their contribution on the split with Ocean Chief (FYI: they did, in the past, also release a split with Witch-Lord). This re-issued double-album is limited to 1,000 copies, by the way.
Even though the album itself wasn’t that renewing at all six years ago (the scene combining sabbathesque Doom with droning Sludge-elements was born shortly before, and there was a huge amount on bands that did ‘express’ this execution with more than average-grandeur!), it certainly was one of the highlights within this specific sub-genre back then (as a matter of fact, it still is). The combination of ultra-heavy (and I do really mean ULTRA-HEAVY) riffs with mainly slow-paced rhythms, extremely brutal compositions in general (the guttural vocals included), the massive sound, the progressive, so-called Post-oriented additions, the fabulous changes in structure and tempo…; anyway, it was another Rock’n’Roller-coaster which easily combines melody with heaviness, and tradition with progression.
All pieces on the album clock over ten minutes, so it’s quite a challenge, and the ignorant / narrow-minded ones amongst us might etc… But imagine earlier Mastodon, injected with elements (from brutality to experiment, from melody to power) from Yob, Ufomammut, Cult Of Luna, Neurosis, AmenRa, Lair Of The Minotaur, Minsk, Alkerdeel and (early) Baroness, even Black Sabbath if you want to, and then …
The bonus-CD comes, as mentioned before, with the re-issue of the band’s 2006-demo (for the first time on CD, by the way), which includes two tracks that were put in a re-recorded edition on the original album (Adapt The Void and Zihuatanejo). It’s another mixture of Sludge, Post-Hardcore, Doom and Drone Metal (if this did not exist yet: now it does!). the sound is quite satisfying, even though it misses the roughness of the final album; but one cannot deny the intension meant to be… I do really want to draw your peculiar attention to When Thunders Collide, for this song comes the closest to Kongh’s later sound, as it is more divers, with inclusion of elements from Stoner and Prog-Post-Rock-Metal-Music-stuff-thing. The bonus-album also consists of the band’s part on the split with Ocean Grief, originally done in 2008 via Land o’ Smiles Records. Drifting On Waves lasts for twenty five minutes and might be the most psychedelic thing the band did so far. It’s much more in the vein of very early Unearthly Trance than any of the other material, but still with a recognizable Kongh-sound for sure. And since it isn’t that easy to find this split-material anymore, it is a fabulously-fantastically-wonderfully-sweetly-nicely-tralala addition to such a great re-issue.
Conclusion: see final score