“After a few months spent raising the kids, earning real money, finding a reliable second guitar guy and writing new music, Kruger are finally back with new material…” reads the press release coming with this 10” vinyl release 333 by Swiss post-metal sludge noise makers Kruger.
We have to go back to 2010 for Kruger’s last full-length release For Death, Glory and the End of the World, which was a fantastic album,so it’s about bloody we’re getting to hear some new stuff. And they have given us 2 tracks on this release, namely ‘The Wild Brunch’ and ‘Herbivores’.
First Track ‘The Wild Brunch’ instantly starts very metal, very sludge, with very intricate tempo changes from the first second onwards. Drummer Raph is a drummer I admire on this and the previous track. For who doesn’t know this, I am a drummer myself, so I firstly tend to zoom in on the drums when I listen to music. Anyway, don’t just think Kruger is all about being heavy sludge metal. My first impression was the slight change in sound compared to the previous work with this addition of more melody. In fact, this track in particular has one of the best melodic parts I’ve heard in any type of heavy music.
But it’s the second track ‘Herbivores’ that is the real beast on this 2-track release, which with nearly 7 minutes provides a great lengthy piece of music, jumping from heavy riffing to very catchy melodies. Singer Renaud starts with the opening line “Look at all those hipsters, eating right from the trees”, and as far as lyrics go (I’m not a lyrics person generally), they had me hooked instantly. Just listen to that guitar riff rhythmically playing away over similar rhythmic drumming, whilst the distorted bass sludges the whole thing into a mix of heavy melodic eargasm. This track jumps around slightly different rhythms and tempo changes, providing plenty of changes to keep these 7 minutes very interesting. ‘Herbivores’ continuously builds upon a wall of sound, even when they take a slight step back after the first couple of minutes. There are moments when everything tends to turn into pure noise chaos, but the band always gets things back on track, partly due to the clearly understandable vocals by Renaud.
Both tracks are brilliant, and especially the chorus in ‘The Wild Brunch’ will hunt you for a long time, it will be stuck in your head and you just find yourself coming back to this release and hoping for much more to come from this band.
Obviously the dayjob and raising these kids did the band good as they’ve found a new edge to their blend of heavy post-metal/sludge. I sincerely hope these 2 new tracks are just the start of more great things to come from Kruger. I want another full-length album now.
A small word of advice, don’t listen to this release on public transport on a Monday morning on your commute to work. You’ll no doubt start air drumming wildly whilst banging your head frantically, causing strange looks from the average looking suits around you.
333 will be released on a limited, hand-numbered edition of 333 copies of coloured vinyl or digital download, both available through here.
