It seems that back in the late 80’s the Netherlands had quite a high reputation of good instrumental avant-garde rock/metal bands. Gore became an absolute underground cult band and almost the same goes for the Amsterdam based avant-garde rockers of Kong. 

Back in the days the band got most of their attention for the way of performing on stage. They performed in the so called ‘quadraphonic’ stage setting, which basically means that in every corner of a venue one of the band-members had a small stage and played from that corner into the audience. This unusual approach gave them not only extra attention, but also a quite unique sound. Kong is musically somewhere between metal, psychedelic rock, electronical and industrial music. Their peak was around 1993-1996, which included a live-set on Dynamo Open Air. In 2000 the band broke up in silence and here we are 9 years later with a new Kong album.

Mark Drillich the one and only original member gathered some new members and made a new Kong album. All the familiar elements are back and the whole atmosphere of this album is referring to the early days of Kong. Overall the songs are very guitar/bass orientated with loads of groove, spiced up with samples, keyboards and electronical/dance elements.

The first two songs kind of sound strange and have a noisier approach to them. After a couple of songs the more groovy straight forward approach kicks in and that’s where the power lies within this band. Songs like ‘Last Hunt’ and ‘Glossip’ have an incredible groove and keep your head nodding forever. On the other hand there are also a handful of songs, which miss this groove and power. In one thing they succeeded big time. For an instrumental band they don’t bore you for one second! Welcome back Kong!

If you dig bands like Pelican, Gore, but also bands like Prong and perhaps the older Ministry, you should give this band a chance. Oh, and if they play in a town near you, go check them out! Their unusual stage-approach should be mind-blowing!