Khold – Krek
Simple lines. Such is the musical nature of the Norwegian beast known as Khold (formerly Tulus). Barren song structures, sickened vocals all in Norwegian, a booming bass tone that would make Blacky shed a toothy grin, rock oriented drumming… the music of Khold feeds from the straight forward and unencoumbered, yet digs deep into the staples of black metal in form and sonic execution. I’m a sucker for plodding simplicity and every album unearthed by this quartet of black wizards has struck a cord with me. “Krek” was no acception. The hooks are massive and so is the production. The lack of speed allows for a very seperated sound. You can hear all the instruments and how they interact with one another. This reinforces the hooks that explode out of every sickened track found on “Krek”. Tracks like “Byrde” and “Lysets Flukt” snap me out of the grooved out hypnosis with some half timed speed breaks before dropping back into some massive breakdowns. As the band continues to incorporate even more ideas into their core sound, they become more dynamic and interesting, building on a CD catalog that truly shines with conviction and dedication to their atypical and monolithic craft. Once again… Great bass tone! This is an instrument that really adds a twisted feeling to black metal that should be further explored by others in a genre hungry to do something a bit different. Even though Khold often takes their fair share of shots for sticking to their often slow and plodding delivery, I gotta say that there’s no other band that sounds like them, or has the ingenuity to write such power music from within this ugly frame of mind. “Krek” is excellent. – Marty
CANDLELIGHT RECORDS
Worm Gear 
I love all their stuff as well. “Phantom” is probably my least favorite.