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Swedish sludge/ doom band Kongh is clearly more than a power trio. Formed in 2004, the band has not been an unknown name in the European slugde/ doom scene the last years. The reason is therefore is the critically acclaimed 2007 debut Counting Heartbeats where guitarist/ vocalist David Johansson, drummer Tomas Salonen and bassist Oskar Ryden took the listener on a highly dynamic and riff-driven voyage.

Shadows of the Shapeless starts as a hurricane with "Unholy Water". Besides the enormous power that Kongh is proving again there is another remarkable fact: David Johansson manages to replace his raw voice by more clean vocals, nevertheless the aggressive dynamic is still present in the song. "Essence Asunder" begins with as a peaceful breeze but turns into a Mastodon-esque sound in the last three minutes. Make sure you are bound to the ground as the storm blows you away. There is also some space for drone doom in the style of Earth: on "Tänk Pa Döden" the band brings the listener in a great atmospheric point of inner calmness. In "Voice of the Below" Kongh is back in the eye of the storm. Starting with a highly addictive guitar riff the song goes further with a typical sludge sound. Despite the similarities with High on Fire, Kongh has his own accents in the more down tempo parts (same pattern in "Unholy Water"). "Shadows of the Shapeless" is definitely the best song of the album. The first two minutes are misleading, as a 10-minute-long pure doom sound sets the end of the album on fire. The last part of the song is faster and a last punch to the listener... speechless and dead to the world.

Kongh has become a destructive trio. While the first album depend on a Crowbar-depending sound, "Shadows of the Shapeless" presents their self-defined oppressive mixture of sludge and doom. This is music, this is war. Now it is time to conquer Europe.

 

http://www.myspace.com/kongh

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AUTHOR: Messy Ass