COUNTING HEARTBEATS

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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!