COUNTING HEARTBEATS

When giving your band a name like Kongh people are going to start comparing and they'll most likely be disappointed if they don't meet the people's high expectations. I was one of those people that after reading the name I was already expecting nothing but wonderful music from these guys and they delivered. Kongh's music embodies the power, rage, boldness and immensity of King Kong (even though their name isn't spelled the same way as the gargantuan primate). And what better music to represent those qualities than something very heavy, angry and slow.

Kongh's music can be seen as a combination of Sludge and Prog Metal. The Sludge aspect of their music is the base of their sound and the Prog Metal aspect is more decorative than methodical (that sounded smart...). While this band is often lumped with Post-Metal bands I think it's misleading to do so since they're closer to their Doom Metal roots than Post-Rock. In other words, if you're expecting to hear something like Rosetta, Callisto, Mouth Of The Architect and Cult Of Luna then you're going to be disappointed. All of those warm emotions you get while listening to those bands are exchanged here by pure anger. I don't know why they're so angry, but its certainly not a bad thing.

Like all bands related to Doom Metal the music is filled with dominant crunchy riffs. The music never gets fast, it stays more on the slow and normal speeds which adds up to the heaviness (that's the whole idea behind this). The songs are standardly long (within the 10 and 15 minute mark) and they do vary from time to time. There are many places where their minimalist nature kicks in it can end up being boring to many listeners if they're not into this style of music. The vocals are a bit weird and I had some time getting used to. They're growled, but it sounds as if David Johansson (the singer and guitarist) was trying too hard. It took me a couple of listens to "get" that he's not trying too hard and that it was his style of singing. There are delicate acoustic parts to even out the aggressiveness, but they're few and far between. A great representative of their overall sound is the song "Pushed Beyond". Its very engaging throughout the 11 minutes of the song and it covers most of Kongh's qualities.

Counting Heartbeats is one of the high marks in the heavier side of metal. Its crushingly oppressive, very enjoyable and a refreshing taste on grounds already discovered. If you're a fan of Doom Metal, Sludge and the heavier Progressive Metal bands then you'll find great enjoyment in one of this year's new talent, Kongh.

Rough and raw, filled with sweat and anger, dark and bitter, atmospheric and dirty, this is 'Counting Heartbeats' by Prog-Sludge band KONGH!

I rarely enjoy stuff of that kind, I prefer purely instrumental Post-Rock/Post-Metal, and the magic trio of ISIS-NEUROSIS-CULT OF LUNA have never been MY music (except for 'The Eye of Every Storm', which is stunning). But since I've discovered ROSETTA, DIRGE, GIANT SQUID and some other Post- Metal bands with vocals that I really ENJOYED, I began to dig deeper. KONGH is my recent discovery, and I really like their manner and their groove; drums and guitar are buried as low as you may wish (but with normal sound quality!), heavy stomach-blowing riffs change to atmospheric guitar arpeggios, BLACK SABBATH influence is obvious, but here are some other ones too, which you can name easily: yes, NEUROSIS for sure, also I heard some TOOL (sorry, that's only me!) and MASTODON in fast breaks. My favouritest track here is 'Zihuatanejo' for sure (does it matter what the name means? I believe it's somehow connected with decay, blood, desolation, desperation and other wonderful things adored by sludgers, he-he), it's almost purely Prog in terms of time signatures, themes' interchanging and compositional structure. Other tracks are bit samey in constructions but they differ in terms of mood and heaviness. Anyway, there's no other word to describe it but EPIC: with 'songs' ranging from 11 to 15 minutes you simply can't find another description, can you? Wonderful record, if you really like Post-Metal...even if you're into more Post-Rocky Post-Metal, like me, I dare to recommend you KONGH, they're massive!

The first incarnation of Kongh originated in Vetlanda, Sweden in 2004 when David Johansson (guitar and vocals) and Tomas Salonen (drums) got in touch and decided to start a band together. The two were from different musical backgrounds involving grindcore, punk and blues, but had a common desire to play in a new band without any musical boundaries. It needed to be monstrously heavy, and with a total lack of restrictions in terms of structure and length of songs. That was the foundation of the band, and as a result, the two-piece started to meet in the rehearsal space every weekend, drinking large amounts of beer and exploring the depths of heaviness. As time went on, real songs started to come to life, and by summer 2005, the beast had gotten the name Kongh.

In early 2006, they had written four songs they were really satisfied with, so they decided to go to the local Teknikkompaniet studio with engineer Peter Lundin, and the result was the 45 minute long 'Demo 2006'. Shortly after, the band line-up was completed when bass player Oskar Rydén joined the band. The demo was released in May, put online and submitted to some magazines, and by the end of the summer, the band had gathered a decent fanbase and had signed their first album deal with Stockholm based label Trust No One Recordings (Switchblade, Breach, Isis). The rest of the year was spent working on material for the album in 2007 they went back into the studio to record 'Counting Heartbeats', which was widely acclaimed and was even nominated for a P3 Guld award in the 'Best rock/metal album' category.

So why all the ancient history? Well, Agonia have made this available as a deluxe double CD which includes not only the debut album, but the 'Demo 2006' recordings plus the 25 minute long "Drifting On Waves" which was released on a split album with Ocean Chief. Yes, doom/sludge/ stoner/post-rock/black metal fans, we have here a ten song set that is more than 130 minutes long. As this is such an old album I knew that there would be plenty of reviews on the web, so I went trawling through quite a few of them, and was somewhat surprised to see that this album is seen as something of a revelation, and is undoubtedly incredibly important within the genre. But, I like to be different, and I just can't agree with the comments.

I listen to everything metallic, but there is something about this that just doesn't connect with me. True, there are moments within it where the band really hit a strong melody, but there are plenty of more where I just find it boring. That they have brought together many styles of metal is never in doubt, nor is the fact that it is incredibly heavy with riffs of lead, but it just isn't something that I enjoyed playing and only worked my way through all the material a few times because I had to. I am sure that fans of the band will be very pleased indeed to be able to get this (if you buy this from the record label site and are one of the first you will also get an exclusive t-shirt), but I'm not one of them. www.agoniarecords.com