KRUGER

'333' (are this lot semi-Satanic?!) is the name given to the latest two track EP from sludgy Swiss post-metallers Kruger. And it seems to be one aimed at collectors, released as it is in a limited hand-numbered coloured 10" vinyl - Pelagic Records' continued commitment to fancy packaging and special editions should be admired. But fancy packaging does not in itself make a good record. Fortunately, Kruger have delivered well on the music front too. Very well, in fact. With only two tracks under scrutiny and a playing time of just over eleven minutes, there's not much aural fodder to get your teeth into here but it's quality over quantity. Opening track, 'The Wild Brunch', is the shorter of the two at four and a half minutes. Alternating between discordant cacophony over which frontman Renaud exercises his impassioned hardcore-esque growls (à la Burst's Linus Jägerskog) and atmospherically layered instrumentations overlaid with a clean vocal delivery, the track seamlessly weaves its way through changing time signatures and tempos with a genuinely progressive gusto. The second number, 'Herbivores' is an equally atmospheric affair with a semi-distorted, palm-muted guitar riff providing a neat foot-tapping impetus to open the song, a motif returned to throughout in various forms, which progresses into dissonantly heavy divergences that build up into eruptions of emotive punches. Kruger, here, prove themselves adept at juxtaposing and fusing shifting moods and levels of intensity in a very natural manner. The two tracks make very engaging listening and, as such, the eleven minutes are over in a flash. And it's a flash of sludge-infused post-metal ingenuity. Well worth checking out.

LABEL:

FORMAT:

Pelagic Records

EP

333

Review by Mark Holmes

RUNNING TIME:

11:22

RELEASE DATE:

5th April 2013

TRACK LISTING

1) The Wild Bunch
2) Herbivores

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:

Switzerland

"...a flash of sludge-infused post-metal ingenuity."