Kruger – For Death, Glory and the End of the World (2010)

Out of the very impressive roster of Listenable Records, we get today another genre-bending band. Kruger hails from Switzerland and their combination of Sludge/Groove and Post-Metal is superb. For over 45 minutes “For Death, Glory and the End of the Word” delivers 9 brutal tracks.

With the waves of new bands coming out these days it’s very hard to bump into one that makes you fully appreciate the art of crafting a different sound that is both powerful and enthralling. Kruger achieves this since the first song, with a brilliant combination of aggressive ‘Sludgy’ riffs, aggressive vocals and solid drumming.

With a very prominent bass guitar line, the band crafts its unique sound when pairing it with blasting guitar rhythms. They have some similarities to Mastodon, but Krueger is at a whole different level, one that we actually enjoy. The band has very tight musical foundations and the guitar work is both powerful and melodic, taking some Post-Metal influences at some points.

The vocals are the traditional Sludge screams, and while there are some ‘cleaner’ sections here and there, they manage to stay aggressive and on top of thing for the whole duration of this album. The overall production of this album is very solid and it highlights the very well designed bass guitar line, contrasting it perfectly with the drumming and singing.

However, not all is good, some experimentation, like the beginning of “Return of the Huns”, feels a bit out of place and sounds plain bad. The good thing is that the band quickly retakes their form with crunchy guitar riffing and solid drumming.

In general, Kruger has released a very solid fourth full-length with “For Death…”, and while some Metalcore hints here and there put us off in this release. They are not as terrible as one might expect, and with their fusion into the band’s sound they even work well at times. As a bonus, there is a guest appearance by Joe Duplantier (Gojira) on vocals in the song “Muscle”. If you want a very thick guitar-driven release look no further and get this album.

Release: July 13th, 2010

Country: Switzerland