Kruger – Adam and Steve (2014)

Having released one of our favorite albums of 2010, Kruger finally returns with an even more impressive follow-up with “Adam and Steve”. With a very melodic and yet crushing sound, the band takes Post-Metal/Sludge to new heights in this eight track assault.

The insanity beings with the very intense opener “Bottoms Up” and never lets go. Vocalist Renaud Meichtry delivers a savage performance with his charismatic screams and greatly elevates the level of intensity presented by the music. The band’s ability to craft intricately layered songs like “Discotheque” and “Charger” is truly unique and its one of the factors that makes them stand out from the rest.

As the album progresses, the sheer aggression of the music further intensifies with some brilliant outbursts of range on “Mountain Man”, one of our favorite tracks in this release. The band’s new guitarist, Raul Bortolotti, is quite well integrated with their style and delivers some killer riffs and atmospheric passages on songs like “The Wild Bunch”. In this track, the contrasting clean vocals nicely give an extra layer of epciness to an already crushing song.

Our favorite track in this release is the groovy and inventive “Herbivores”, a song that features some cool drum patterns and a hectic bass guitar line. Closing with the experimental mellowness of “Farewell”, the band leaves us on a very unique and soothing manner. This song is quite different from the rest, nicely bringing to a close a very intense and diverse release.

As a whole, “Adam and Steve” is one hell of an intense release that further showcases Kruger’s expert abilities to deliver great music. Brilliantly mixed by Cult of Luna's Magnus Lindberg, this is one sexy sounding album.  If you are in the market for something brutal, melodic, and groovy at the same time, look no further and get this pummeling release.

Label: Listenable Records / Pelagic Records

Release: October 13th, 2014

Genre: Post-Metal / Sludge Metal

Country: Switzerland