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Their debut album is out in October.

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Album Review: Kongh – Dissolved in Time

Reviewed by Rick Eaglestone

When Kongh released Sole Creation back in 2013, the Swedish outfit had already spent the best part of a decade quietly building one of the most singular reputations in European heavy music, three records of crushing, glacial sludge-doom stretched from 2007’s Counting Heartbeats through Shadows Of The Shapeless to that third full-length and touring alongside the likes of Meshuggah and YOB before slipping into a silence so total that plenty of us assumed it was permanent. Founding member David Johansson decamped to Cult of Luna as their touring guitarist, the years quietly piled up, and Kongh became one of those bands you mention in the past tense. And yet here we are: Dissolved In Time, a fourth full-length arriving via Trust No One Recordings, is proof that some ideas simply refuse to stay buried.

This is a record with its eyes fixed firmly forward, and Johansson has been at pains to make that clear. Dissolved In Time is essentially his record as he writes, plays guitar, bass and electronics, sings, and mixed the thing himself though he has surrounded that vision with kindred spirits, among them drummer Christian Augustin, mastering veteran Magnus Lindberg (who also shaped Sole Creation), and backing vocals from Grave and Entombed man Jörgen Sandström. Three tracks, an eighteen-minute opener, a seven-minute hinge, and a thirteen-minute closer that between them demand the better part of forty minutes of your undivided attention. It is, by some distance, the boldest and most far-reaching record the band has yet made, and it wears that reach without a shred of apology.

Staining The Ether is where Kongh plant their flag, and at nearly nineteen minutes it is less a song than a slow act of tectonic movement. It opens in that familiar Kongh register, riffs the size of continents, dragged forward at a funereal crawl before gradually revealing just how much has changed. Electronics shimmer at the edges of the mix, layered textures bloom and recede, and Johansson’s roar, when it finally arrives, sounds weathered and enormous, a man hollering into a canyon and waiting for the echo. What is remarkable is the patience of it all; the track earns every one of its minutes, building through passages of mesmeric, cyclical riffing into crescendos that feel genuinely cathartic rather than merely loud. There is a ten-minute single edit knocking about for the impatient, but to hear it that way is to miss the point entirely. This is music built for the long haul.

Guided To The End is the record’s most concise statement, and it functions as a kind of pressure valve between the two leviathans that flank it. At a comparatively lean seven minutes it moves with something approaching urgency, the riffs tighter and more insistent, the groove locking into a grim, head-nodding lurch that recalls the band at their most immediate. If Staining The Ether is about the slow accumulation of dread, this is the moment that dread finds a shape and starts walking towards you. Johansson’s vocals here are among the most desperate on the album, and the electronic flourishes that felt decorative on the opener take on a colder, more menacing hue. It is the track most likely to lure in listeners who found the extended pieces daunting, and it manages that without diluting an ounce of the band’s essential heaviness. A brutal, focused centrepiece.

Dissolved In Time arrives to close the circle, and it may well be the finest thing Kongh have ever recorded. Thirteen minutes of controlled devastation, the title track broods where the opener built and the middle cut struck, unfurling with the grim inevitability of its own name: everything eventually eroded, everything eventually gone. Johansson leans hard into atmosphere here, letting cavernous doom passages dissolve into near-ambient stretches before hauling the whole edifice back into the red. The interplay between crushing weight and genuine beauty is masterful, and the closing minutes, all mournful melody and slow collapse, land with the force of a benediction. It is a fittingly monumental way to end a record that has staked everything on scale and conviction, and it leaves you sitting in the silence afterwards, faintly stunned. A staggering close to a fearless release.

So, was it worth the thirteen-year wait? On the evidence of Dissolved In Time, unequivocally so. This is not a band trading on former glories or gently tapping out a comeback for old times’ sake; it is Kongh sounding heavier, stranger and more purposeful than they ever have, a record that could only have been made by a man with nothing left to prove and no reason whatsoever to hurry. It asks a great deal of the listener because three tracks, forty minutes, no easy hooks to cling to, but it repays that investment many times over. Dissolved In Time is the real article: vast, patient and utterly devastating. Some silences, it turns out, are worth breaking.

A monumental return that dissolves the intervening years as though they were nothing: crushing, cavernous and quietly magnificent. Kongh have not merely come back, they have come back better.

For all the latest news, reviews, interviews across the heavy metal spectrum follow THE RAZORS’S EDGE on facebook, twitter and instagram.

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Hyro The Hero will only be partaking in two stops though.

The post BLACKGOLD, Sumo Cyco & Hyro The Hero Set For Fall European Tour appeared first on Theprp.com.

Finally I get around to following on from the real writers on our team and continue my own rundown of the bands I saw at Bloodstock 2026. We still have a pile of interviews to come up as well! I tried to get around as many of the stages as possible despite the hot weather, … Continue reading Festival Review: Bloodstock 2026 – Friday (Mosh’s view)

They call themselves Song People, and they’re once again proving it today. The Philly band showed off their unique blend of jangle-pop, dream-pop, post-punk, and folk on “Silver Flag,” the lead single from new album Tho I Seem Tame. Second single “The Cone” is out now, and it continues to make me imagine a timeline in which Fairport Convention were a C86 band.

The post Song People – “The Cone” appeared first on Stereogum.

Album Review: The Ocean – Solaris

Reviewed by Oli Gonzalez

When it comes to post-metal, there aren’t many bigger than The Ocean! They are to the genre what Slayer are to thrash. The Ocean have forged a reputation for being one of the finest live bands on the planet. Of any genre! I know for sure – I was there for their “Pelagial” set at Night Of Salvation 2024. An end of an era, in many ways, given that this was amongst their final shows with that lineup. August of this year marked their return to the stage with a headline set at Pelagic Fest in Maastricht, NL. Now, we can see what they’ve been up to in the studio with this new lineup, with their upcoming album “Solaris”.

The dual vocal approach is perhaps the most salient feature in this new era for The Ocean. Equally, it’s not the most obvious change. Let me explain. Loic left HUGE boots with his distinct voice, effortlessly switching from soothing cleans to demonic growls! The new man behind the mic Enrico was up for this challenge though, and frankly excels! Somehow, he steps up and captures the essence of Loic’s cleans and screams, but in no way shape or form feels like he’s trying to copy his predecessor. No, this is an authentic performance that is as believable as it is impressive. Then there’s Sane. She offers similarly calming and melodic resonance to her voice. Equally, she can flick a switch and unleash a weapon the band have never had in their arsenal. A wave of ethereal primitive style of vocals you’d associate with Heilung or Eivor, such is the deep haunting Pagan-like quality! Finding the correct vocabulary is hard to describe which is why the bonechilling impact needs to be experienced for yourself.

Their synergy and chemistry can be seen on multiple songs, perhaps most notably in ‘Ultima Esperanza’. With Enrico staying in his route one style of growls and Sane expressing herself in a jaw dropping array of shrieks and ethereal wails, the comparison to Cult Of Luna and Julie Christmas is uncanny! Alongside the mechanically tight grooves being laid down by the band’s instrumentation, the illusion is complete!

The Ocean have never been one for conventional songs. Preferring more expansive releases with anything but canonical song structures, “Solaris” is no different. Though ‘Simulacra’ is the grand champion coming in at a grand 17:53, making the rest of the songs that hover around the 10 minute mark seem short. This results in cinematic journeys that will appease those wanting a deeper immersive experience. Though this may also deter those wanting a quick dopamine hint from a much shorter song. A man who is no stranger to expansive cinematic length compositions is Hypno5e guitarist and frontman Emmanuel, who joins this new look version of The Ocean. It would be no surprise if he has imprinted himself into the band’s DNA already. Though this new version never strays too far from the band’s core sound. Instead, it feels like a natural progression rather than a radical shift. We hear the progressive and expansive emotion from earlier releases like ‘Pelagial’, albums where deep investment and patience is fully rewarded, alongside the new age electronic feel of ‘Holocene’ (though ‘Milk of My Dreams’ takes this EDM approach further and farther than any other).

Are there cryptic references to old band members and the old era of the band? The lines ‘’New Horizons, fearless until you get the courage’’ during ‘Ultima Esperanza’ suggests so, as well as the line “I will cherish every memory and every moment we shared” during the aptly named ‘Departure Song’. This hints at an overarching theme of transitions and inevitable changes that come in life. After all, change can be good, change can be bad. The Ocean had been dealt a terrible hand with the core of the band leaving, and with an un-enviable task of a thankless rebuilt project facing the remaining members. “Solaris” is not just the latest album in The Ocean’s storied history. It’s a statement of resilience, and rather than resisting change, fully embracing this and making the very best of the seismic shifts life had forced on them.

The Ocean are well and truly back!

For all the latest news, reviews, interviews across the heavy metal spectrum follow THE RAZORS’S EDGE on facebook, twitter and instagram.

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Gentling The Horse At The Walt Whitman Mall is going to be a trip. Caroline Rose has previewed the forthcoming album with bizarro bangers “Yip Yip Yow” and “Chow Mein,” and now she’s sharing “Calm” and “Hello Again, Jim.”

The post Caroline Rose – “Calm” & “Hello Again, Jim” appeared first on Stereogum.

Like many in his field, the Catalan electronic musician John Talabot tends to release songs in small bursts, in the form of singles and EPs. He only has two full-lengths to his name, 2012’s ƒIN and 2017’s The Night Land, released under the name Talaboman. Since then, a strange silence has indeed set in, with no new releases besides a pair of Talaboman singles in 2023. This fall, he’ll make his grand return, and he’s doing it in longform.

The post John Talabot Announces New OR Album <em>Music For Empty Stadiums</em>: Hear “Nokik Messiah” appeared first on Stereogum.

Live Review: Havok – The Fleece, Bristol

15th September 2026
Support: Blood Red Throne, Xonor, Eradikated
Words: Rich Oliver

Colorado thrashers Havok brought carnage to Bristol on a Tuesday evening with a stacked line up of thrash and death goodness.

Thanks to the joy that is traffic in Bristol city centre, I arrived at the venue late and missed the vast majority of openers Eradikated. It was a shame as I enjoyed their latest album “Wiring Of Violence” but the brief part of the set I did get to see I did enjoy. The young Swedish thrashers had plenty of energy on stage and tore it up with some very speedy thrash.

Swiss thrashers Xonor were the band on the line up that I was not at all familiar with. Decked out on stage with balaclavas, Xonor played a more hardcore infused style of thrash with a lot more modern elements as well as old school influences. The hardcore influences could be heard in the vocal style employed by frontman Donagh Ramsauer as well a few breakdowns dotted about in their songs. The band also embraced their silly side with ‘Monkey Mosh’ having a guy in a banana suit and an ape suit going at each other in the pit. Xonor were solid thrash but their songs lacked memorable riffs and licks. Their performance was a bit rough and sloppy at times but I’m sure more experience on stage will iron these issues out.

The jump in quality as Norwegian death metallers Blood Red Throne hit the stage was astronomical but compared to the two opening bands, Blood Red Throne have decades of experience behind them and are a well oiled metal machine. They were the odd band out on the bill being the sole death metal band in a sea of thrash but Blood Red Throne took it in their stride and won over the crowd with the only way they know how – sheer bludgeoning violence. This strategy definitely got a seal of approval from the Bristol crowd as the pit activity increased tenfold. The performances from the band were ultra tight and the sound was fat and chunky and best of all the band looked like they were having the time of their lives on stage especially Stian Gunderson who was difficult to take your eyes off with his unbridled enthusiasm and hysterical beard shaking instead of headbanging. Blood Red Throne were as heavy as anything and absolutely left their stamp on Bristol but the best was still to come…

It had been a couple of years since Havok performed in the UK and this show was, I believe, their first ever in Bristol. The venue had become steadily more busy as the night progressed and by the time that Havok hit the stage it was nice and full. Any worries that the crowd had tired themselves out during Blood Red Throne were quickly put to bed as the pit barely stopped all night and there were a healthy amount of crowd surfers and stage divers. Havok were loud, tight and a vicious thrashing machine playing a nice mix of brand new and vintage material. New songs ‘Fifth Generation Warfare’ and ‘The Ultimate Weapon’ were well received and sounded good but it was the old stuff that everyone lost their shit to with relentless thrashers such as ‘Prepare For War’, ‘Give Me Liberty…Or Give Me Death’, ‘No Amnesty’ and ‘Phantom Force’ testing the strongest of neck muscles. Havok live is an experience any self respecting thrash metal fan should witness as they play with lightning fast precision, face ripping aggression and ear shredding volume.

Special mention has to go to whoever was responsible for playing the Bill McClintock mash ups over the PA whilst Havok were setting up. Never have I laughed so much when waiting for a band to start.

For all the latest news, reviews, interviews across the heavy metal spectrum follow THE RAZORS’S EDGE on facebook, twitter and instagram.

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