Feed the Bong
There is no shortage of gothic tinged doom bands in the current day and age and Birmingham’s Kroh fit like a gnarled fist into a iron gauntlet into this particular dark corner of the metal sphere. They team vocalist Oliwia Sobieszek’s keening, clear vocals and occasional Polish lyrics with heavy bass tones and elephantine barrages of guitar to make their new release with a new line-up, Altars, a familiar but pleasing affair.
I’ve often thought that these retro bands - blues still matters to stoner rock - made the most of extreme metal’s abandonment of clean vocals by realising that there are plenty of singers who still sing and love heavy music. The proliferation of women in this genre brings new strands of thought and presentation to what would otherwise be pure Sabbath worship. Vocals communicate feeling again rather than joining in with the torrent of percussive sounds that prevail across other metal genres. Bands such as Subrosa are doing something new and very specific with this music but I wouldn’t put Kroh there just yet.
Kroh is ostensibly the baby of Paul Kenney but the album begins with Sobieszek’s unaccompanied choral vocals and Polish lyrics before wading into the riffs of Mother Serpent (there had to be some Baba Yaga on this record). The vocals are given space to lilt above the grind but the drum sound is questionable. The kit is so compressed as to sound almost like a Napster download from 1999. This may have been a sonic choice but unfortunately I can’t fathom the reasoning. This tinny, disruptive drum sound is maintained throughout making Lars Ulrich seem like a man of taste and refinement but, no matter, for it’s the tar encrusted riffs that anchor this band, dominating proceedings until such time as Sobieszek’s vocals swoop into any vacated space.
Feed the Brain strays from the Electric Wizard derived template with its martial beat, Teutonic backing vocals and dialed back guitars and it sounds all the more haunting for it. There are other moments of stylistic meandering which pay off for Kroh such as the Goblin like spook of the intro to Stone the Flesh or the lament of Cold. Ironically or not, this often involves Kenney eschewing straight-forward riffage for atmosphere playing more to the strengths of Sobieszek. Malady immediately follows Feed the Brain and while being a slightly written song works in bringing some much needed intrigue and by latterly giving power to the returning riffs on Break the Bread.
Kroh’s deep appreciation of the classics - they are Brummies after all - might be admirable but could also hold them back. The addition of Sobieszek is undoubtedly a positive one suggesting there might be more to come from Kroh, especially on the evidence of the second side of the album, but they could as easily crank out the same record next time. Mount Salem released a record not unlike this one - Endless - which hit the spot but that was in 2014 so maybe the spot has moved?