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Konkhra: Weed out the weak
02/06/10 || Daemonomania
Actual quotes from a March 14, 2010 discussion of Konkhra:
Floodhorse: Huge letdown.
Saldiac: Meh band is meh.
OT: They are from Denmark. Worthwhile music from Denmark is basically non-existent.
Lord K: Template metal, if you will.
The people are REAL. The quotes are REAL. The rulings are FINAL. This is her courtroom. This is Judge Judy. No, no it isn’t actually.
There it is. Antipathy mixed with disdain that seems to follow utterance of the low-quality band name Konkhra. However, if you know my taste at all you’ll know that mid-paced death metal without any obnoxious quirks is sure to get at least a 7 at the end of my reviews. Sure enough, “Weed out the weak” follows just such a formula. Like a Pavlovian dog, once teh groove kicks in my scoring saliva starts a-flowin’.
Is there anything in Konk-ring’s bag of tricks that will make the experienced listener leap up and shout huzzah!, eureka!, or gadzooks!? Nah. To some extent the tag “template metal” might actually be justified. Sounds like the Danes in question gave Gorefest’s “False” and Grave’s “Soulless” a number of spins and liked what they heard. It seems the band changed their sound drastically for “WotW”. Half the ‘em busted out after the release of “Spit or swallow” (subtitle: IG’s Dilemma). They brought James Murphy into the ranks. You may have heard of him. So yeah, they sound different.
Summary time. Here’s the pros: Production wise, everything sounds amazing. If I’m not mistaken some of it was done at Sunlight. Sunlight means “quality” in Swedish. The riffs are big and burly, like a large man taking a massive dump on your front lawn. Soloing, as expected, is virtuoso but rare. Vocals, when growling and not in spoken-word-Henry-Rollins mode, are also all the aces. The pure catchiness of these tracks WILL NOT and CANNOT be denied.
Here’s the cons: What the hell is up with filler track “Kinshasa Highway”? It sounds like jungle porn. It sounds like a throwaway Soulfly track. It sounds stupid. Aside from several pointless interludes, the preponderance of “talking like I’m tough” vocals needs ta go. Then you’ve got songs that are shadows of other, better songs you’ve already heard. It weighs “WotW” down.
Had they kept up the quality of tracks like “Time will heal” or “Through my veins”, they’d have created classic worthy of their influences. It didn’t happen. And that’s OK. Konkadonk still managed to make a disc full of that slow-drip punishment that causes my loins healthy amounts of condensation. Is it for everyone? Clearly not. Judgment for the defendant…
- Information
- Released: 1997
- Label: Diehard Records
- Website: www.konkhra.com
- Band
- Anders Lundemark: vocals, guitars
- James Murphy: guitars
- Thomas Christensen: bass
- Chris Kontos: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Heavensent
- 02. Time Will Heal
- 03. Crown Of The Empire
- 04. Kinshasa Highway (the jerking of the apes)
- 05. Through My Veins
- 06. The Reckoning
- 07. Misery
- 08. Melting
- 09. Inhuman
- 10. Pain And Sorrow
- 11. My Belief
