Release Date: June 08th 2024. Record Label: Self Released. Formats: DD
Nukes And Napalm: Tracklisting
1.Desert Sun 06:27
2.Eye of the Storm 04:01
3.Rebuilding the State 03:06
4.Nukes & Napalm 07:17
5.Tundra Bot 03:00
6.Sage 02:55
7.Drifter's memories 03:02
8.Homo Naledi 01:54
9.Spit it Out 00:32
10.Cosmic traveler 04:55
11.Hello, Goodbye, How High? 00:59
12.Portals 03:05
13.Void 06:32
Band Members
German Vincent Kurt
Arthur Škurko
Shade
Drifter
Review
Nukes And Napalm is the debut full length album from Sludge/Doom/Stoner Metallers Kumara who add a touch of Acid Drenched Desert Rock to the trippy and nihilistic vision heard on the album. The record is quite aggressive and raw-sounding with excellent levels of Psychedelic nature to keep the album heavy and quite refreshing to hear in places.
The production is most definitely more “LO-FI” than you initially expect but that matches the post-apocalyptic vision of the creative vision of the album. There’s moments of harsh vocals on certain parts of the album but they’re mostly clean based which becomes a reliable tool for narration for Kumara to use and exploit on the whole record.
Kumara reminds me of a more primal sounding MONSTER MAGNET especially within the Sonic based tapestries that appear within the free-flowing elements of the album. Kumara do experiment with their Psychedelic sounds on this album which gives Nukes And Napalm a more subtle modern day quality.
The opening tracks of Desert Sun, Eye Of The Storm and Rebuilding The State set the scene for the listener to become accustomed to Kumara’s great style of raw-sounding Sludge/Stoner Metal set against a desolate Punk/Desert Rock environment with a slight experimental Punk Rock edge allowing the record to be quite cinematic in places.
The instrumental sounds are seedy, dirty and grimy with an almost classic GRUNGE aesthetic boiling over into the forefront of everything. Though, Kumara reside firmly within the confinements of the post-apocalyptic Sludge/Stoner Metal wastelands which manifests into pure down-tuned and distorted WEEDIAN CHAOS.
The record does become quite abstract on the later stages especially with tracks such as Sage, Drifter’s Memories, Cosmic Traveller and Void. As the story starts to fully form and flesh out for an exciting finish of distorted rhythms and fractured instrumental grooves that even sees some soothing moments of Psych Rock or Post-Stoner attitude starting to appear.
Nukes And Napalm is quite an unexpected delight with Kumara delivering a record with a well executed premise and burying them under a ton of epic sounding grooves. The band aren’t the finished article by no means but this is a superb introduction for the band to make themselves known within the underground Doom/Sludge/Stoner Metal scene.
I'm looking forward to hearing more great music from Kumara in the future but until then check out this great album now.
Excellent and Highly Recommended.
Words by Steve Howe
Links
Official | Facebook | BandCamp | Instagram
