Kurokuma - Of Amber and Sand

Kurokuma – Of Amber and Sand
Release Date: 9th August 2024
Label: Self Released
Bandcamp
Genre: Doom, Sludge, Psych.
FFO: Conan, Tuskar, BongCauldron, Battalions, Everest Queen, Grave Lines.
Review By: Mark Young

Introduced in their PR as being not Sludge, not Doom, not Death Metal. It’s Kurokuma. It’s also going a long way to explain what they are and what they aren’t.

With opener, I Am Forever, there’s a sense of urgency, with its cockerel crow start, and one of the thickest guitar sounds you will hear, with vocals barked without pause for breath. So far, so good, and just based on this first track you know you are in for a ride. Sandglass is a short burst of sound, rising and discordant with growing tribal percussion, that opens the door for Death No More to step through, the multicultural influences all over the intro that is simply squashed by a noise that is akin to a stomping automaton intent on destroying all in its path. This is heavy, lumbering, possessing an arrangement that changes and evolves. It’s off-kilter, which I think is its intent, to make it as uncomfortable as possible for the listener. There are some brutal death vocals here and a deep groove that is followed up by the blink, and you miss Clepsydra, 45 seconds of a sonic build that ushers the fleet-fingered guitar lines of Fenjaan, descending into the dark, tightened riffs and a dual vocal attack that changes tack once again.

Bell Tower is our next interlude, and I have gone on record in the past that sometimes they do more harm than good, in interrupting the flow of an album, but at least it feeds into the instrumental track, Neheh, with its repeating bass line and short controlled bursts of fury as it closes out into Timekeeper, which is similar to Bell Tower in that it doesn’t offer anything in the way of note, unless it’s acting as a bridging piece between segments. I’m not sure. However, Crux Ansata follows, with a sound that is frankly massive, and wipes away any negative thoughts I may have had. This is more in-line with traditional sludge, with one of ‘those’ riffs. The drumming once again is exemplary, with Joe Allen’s just nailing the brief here. There’s also time for Zakk Wells to throw in, getting the bass up there. It’s the way that song flows, moving from the static into the organic as Jacob’s runs away with one of the lead breaks of the year. I appreciate that is going out on a limb but listen to it in the context of the song. We hear virtuosity, and technical players all the time, but here we have a perfect lead that fits the song perfectly.

Awakening offers a brief respite before the ending piece, Chronoclasm, and straight from the off it’s something different. There is a science fiction touch to it, in the way the guitar lines are deployed during the opening. The drums and bass follow, in unison playing as one, allowing Jacob Mazlum’s guitar to just leave orbit. The first chord stabs feel so expansive, and the vocals enter. You can see where the sludge / doom tags come from, the almost glacial guitar set against the constant rhythm, but it’s more than that. That pace stays constant even when the guitar quickens just before it drops away. There is a moment of feedback, and then it kicks with the simplest of lines, almost acting as reset allowing Jacob to shower us with an atonal lead break, and then it’s the final moments and done.

This is a brilliant exercise in subverting what I thought it would sound like (how many times have you read something like ‘it is not like other…’) and that is what we have here. Despite the interludes, it is a storming album that offers so much more than the standard doom or sludge material.