Kurokuma - Of Amber And Sand (Album Review)

Release Date: August 09th 2024. Record Label: Self Released. Formats: CD/DD/Vinyl

Of Amber And Sand: Tracklisting

1.I Am Forever 

2.Sandglass

3.Death No More

4.Clepsydra

5.Fenjaan

6.Bell Tower

7.Neheh

8.Timekeeper

9.Crux Ansata 

10.Awakening

11.Chronoclasm

Members

Guitar / Vocals: Jake Mazlum

Bass / Vocals: Zakk Wells

Drums: Joe E. Allen

Review

Of Amer And Sand is the second full length album from UK Heavy Metallers Kurokuma and takes a daring creative turn compared to their celebrated 2022 debut album Born Of Obsidian. The bone-crunching and earth-shattering sounds have more volume to them which allows the music to have a destructive quality especially with the dual vocals of Jake Mazlum and Zakk Wells when they appear.

It seems Kurokuma are dabbling with the finer and dark arts of the Extreme Metal scene. They have a fearless creative and Alchemist attitude where they blend huge soaring sonic and Psychedelic Grooves that venture into areas of metal such as Drone, Sludge, Doom, Thrash and Stoner whilst also not being part of those movements either. 

There is a wild abundance of Glitches and Ambient noise effects which are overlapped with Industrial beats and Eastern/Oriental themes which are absolutely crushing, violently aggressive and wholly original at the same time. You begin to feel that highly destructive and addictive energy with the epic opening tracks of I Am Forever, Sandglass and Death No More where Kurokuma starts to have hallucinogenic visions inspired by SHAMANIC attitudes, beats and rhythms which can be quite TRIBAL at times. 

The record sees Kurokuma inspired by bands such as SEPULTURA, Mastodon, Neurosis and EARTH with similar creative cues appearing here and there on the later stages of the record. There’s deep philosophical ideas appearing with the lyrics and different vocal techniques that allows Kurokuma to drift further towards the Progressive Metal sound with heavy extended instrumental passages and harsh growls that add an extra layer of menace to the record.

Other standout tracks include: Clepsydra, Fenjaan, Neheh, Awakening and Chronoclasm which are my own personal favourite songs on the record. As they dare to be different with Kurokuma breathing new life into the many subgenres of Heavy Metal that Of Amber And Sand beautifully holds together.

Kurokuma are at the height of their creative powers with this record and have an intense and brilliant technical proficiency and ability which manifests into the heaviest, ferocious and nastiest grooves of their career to date. 

Of Amber Of Sand sees Kurokuma crafting a whole new genre of heavy metal where only they reign wholly supreme with spectacular results throughout. This is a groundbreaking record in every sense of the word.

Words by Steve Howe

Thanks to For The Lost PR for the promo.

Of Amber And Sand will be available to buy on CD/DD/Vinyl from Friday 09th August 2024.

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King Bastard - From Whence They Came (Album Review)

Release Date: June 21st 2024. Record Label: Self Released. Formats: CD/DD

From Whence They Came: Tracklisting

1. Knuckle Dragger - 6:48

2. The Invisible Landscape - 4:10

3. Astral Psyche - 8:00

4. The Dawn of Man - 12:04

Band Members

Mike Verni - Guitar 

Arthur Erb - Bass & vocals

Matt Ryan - Drums & percussions

Review

Psychedelic Drone/Doom/Sludge Metallers King Bastard new album From Whence They Came sees the band return with a more inward and primal sound compared to their acclaimed 2022 debut release Into The Void. Their debut saw the band venture into the far reaches of Space but this time round the band return closer to home by orchestrating a tribal movement that feels inspired by the likes of SEPULTURA and SLAYER within the harsh opening track of Knuckle Dragger.

The song which dramatically retells the beginnings of humankind with downtuned grooves with a ferocious Sludge Metal sound that becomes quite challenging with the death based growls that lead the creative analysis of the whole album. The music is powered by pummelling drums, violent bass echoing danger from all corner and a Psychedelic guitar that brings a familiar instrumental charge that appeared within their last album that echoes bands such as SLEEP and UFOMAMMUT but with Arthur’s vocals giving King Bastard an unpredictable quality. The song changes into more Thrash based but with echoes of Psychedelic Doom setting up the scene for the next stage of evolution that King Bastard expertly flesh out for the rest of the album.

The record becomes more Ambient and Psychedelic based with the next song The Invisible  Landscape with moments of eerie Post-Doom and Post-Stoner sounds with a small intriguing soundbyte explaining the context of this song alone. The instrumental parts are well played and superbly drawn out even with this being the shortest track of the album and is perhaps the quietest part of the album. As ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE within the final two tracks.

Third track Astral Psyche starts friendly and opening with the free-flowing Post-Rock vibes which draws in slow amounts of Space Rock, Sludge Rock and Ambient Textures with sublime Sonic experimentation adding a dramatic “next step in evolution” part of the story appearing within the progressive and flashier guitar solos. However, things become more aggressive and change for the better when the THUGGISH appearance of the Sludge/Stoner Metal guitars soon change into a DRONE based style of multi-layered riffs that would make Mastodon blush with envy. The second half of the track is dominated by animalistic sounds and tribal buildups with the record once again becoming quite uplifting whilst slightly paranoid at the same time.

Fourth track The Dawn Of Man is where the uplifting aspect changes into a world of desolate darkness with down-tuned and distorted DRONE metal allowing the band to live upto the “BASTARD” part of their name with aggressive levels of Sludge Metal fully taking over at a demented slow pace. The track has an unforgiving and destructive quality with King Bastard matching the primal tones of the opening track but with a more truly apocalyptic feel. The DEATH based growls from Arthur make a welcome return which only just adds to the unapologetic nature of the whole album.

From Whence They Came only lasts around thirty minutes but feels twice as long thanks to the brilliantly bold creative vision that King Bastard has written for the whole album. With Colin Marston (Gorguts) handling the recording, engineering, mixing and mastering duties of the whole album, this is perhaps why the record has a mean nasty streak within the heaviest parts of the album.

However, at least King Bastard show that lessons learned from their debut album haven’t been forgotten within the outstanding Psychedelic and Spaced Out sounds that appear.

King Bastard have avoided the sophomore curse and released an album that’s brutally original and quite groundbreaking in places that will no doubt be a major player by appearing on multiple Album Of The Year Lists before the end of the year is out.

Words by Steve Howe

Thanks to Purple Sage PR for the promo.

From Whence They Came will be available to buy on CD/DD from Friday 21st June 2024.

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