### Krux: III - He who sleeps amongst the stars

#### 19/12/11 || gk

I’ve been a big fan of Leif Edling for a long while now. First for Candlemass and then later for Abstrakt Algebra and Krux. “III – He Who Sleeps Amongst The Stars” is the new album from Krux once again coming across like a Swedish super group and delivering some classic doomy heavy metal.

There are some subtle changes in the sound of the band for their third album. The slight prog touches of “II” have mostly gone away, the keyboards seems to have been relegated to the background and often sound like an afterthought and the album is more aggressive traditional heavy metal than doom. Sure, there is some doom on offer but overall, the songs are more energetic and gallop more than they crawl.

Stand out tracks include album opener and title song “He Who Sleeps Amongst The Stars” which rips out of the starting blocks and has a terrific solo from Fredrik Åkesson. “The Hades Assembly” is probably the most doom of the songs on this album and has a superb vocal performance from Mats Levén and Edling’s bass sounds ominous. “Emily Payne (and the black maze)” is more classy mid paced heavy metal with a killer chorus and another superb lead guitar section. “Small Deadly Curses” is my favourite song on the album being incredibly catchy and sounding like it could have been on Bruce Dickinson’s “Accident of Birth” if not for the keyboards. This is proper fist pumping heavy metal. The album ends with “A Place of Crows” which is another great heavy and doomy song and the perfect end to the album. The only song that didn’t really work for me was mid album epic “Prince Azaar and the Invisible Pagoda” which had some good parts but at over 10 minutes never really came together as a whole. Otherwise, “III – He Who Sleeps Amongst the Stars” is some flawless heavy metal with a doom feel.

There’s something about a bunch of accomplished and professional musicians creating heavy metal like this and in spite the music being dark and heavy it’s a happy feeling. From Edling’s bass, Sandström and Åkesson’s guitar playing, Peter Stjärnvind’s solid drumming that gets the job done without ever being flashy and Mats Levén’s awesome vocal performance to the songwriting itself, this is an immaculate performance from Krux. Maybe not as awesome as “I” was but definitely better than “II.” The songs are memorable, there’s hardly a misstep here and “III – He Who Sleeps Amongst The Stars” is some classy heavy metal.

- Information
- Released: 2011
- Label: GMR Music
- Website: Krux MySpace
- Band
- Mats Levén: vocals
- Jörgen Sandström: guitars
- Fredrik Åkesson: guitars
- Leif Edling: bass
- Peter Stjärnvind: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. He Who Sleeps Amongst the Stars
- 02. The Hades Assembly
- 03. Emily Payne (and the Black Maze)
- 04. Small Deadly Curses
- 05. Prince Azaar and the Invisible Pagoda
- 06. The Death Farm
- 07. A Place of Crows