The debut album from the band with the best name in Melbourne.Küntsqaüd is an umlaut-laden crust punk/sludge metal four-piece with an old school sound that reminded me of Discharge and Driller Killer-inspired D-Beat.
The album opens with the quick grindcore track Black then rips into Slave, a punky ripper with a big wall of drumming to close out. Gods Of War has a fast-paced verse and staccato, slogan shouted chorus, and an appropriately marching, driving mid-section that evokes a militaristic drum march all contained in a concise 1:50 run time.
Necro Nightmare starts slow and speeds up real quick under the raspy growls and chunky riff. Stomp is something of a catchy toe-tapper at first before launching in a blasty verse with trade-off vocals. The catchy riff gives way to a section of super quick vocals and the disparity between the grindy verse and the chorus works really well.
Psych Ward B slows down a lil in the verse and has a gang chant vocal for the chorus with a palm-muted riff mans some nice lead work in the midsection. Vomitorium Compendium stats with a somewhat lengthy sample considering it takes up 29 seconds of the 1:40 total runtime. It has a really catchy riff in the quiet devotion right before the big wind-up for the ending and is a good example of Küntsquäds wheelhouse and their sound.
Sit Down is a fast-paced banger and Take Control opens up with a real filthy, distorted bass riff before the guitars and vocals kick in.Out Alive is a little more punk with its riff sitting higher on the fretboard and some spoken lyrics in the verse before the growls and fast drums return for the chorus. Closer Fuck brings the speed with a real fast tremolo riff and blasty drum beats.
The album was recorded and mixed by Jason “PC” Fuller at his GoatSound Studio and it has a real dirty, distorted sound to it that matches the songs really well. Sometimes a nice pristine sound is the opposite of what you need and I thought the distorted guitars, drums, and especially the filthy bass tone came across as a perfect fit for the grindy songs.
As someone who just about always says the more BPMs and blasts the better, I did think at around the 2/3-3/4 mark of the album it could have used a slower, doom-laden track or two to add some variance but to be fair, we came here short, fast and loud crust punk bangers and that’s what we got in spades.
One thing I will note is that my pre-order CD came with signatures and a number on it and a sticker that had real 90s throwback vibes and I was stoked as fuck with that.
A solid album that hits all the bases it was going for and has a sound that aligns with the genre tropes but doesn’t imitate any of its predecessors. 7.5/10
Follow Küntsquäd: Website:https://black-roos.com/kuntsquad
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kuntsquad666
Instagram: kuntsquad_official
Bandcamp: https://kuntsquad.bandcamp.com
Wormholedeath : http://www.wormholedeath.com
