KONG - Merchants of Air

While they are less known in our parts, Kong aren’t exactly young, as many of us would think. After 24 years of activity, the Dutchmen are now at their seventh studio album. Furthermore, Kong is one of the bands that have brought about the industrialised and “synthetic” (if I may call it so) progressive that Rob Zombie, OSI, Porcupine Tree or Riverside play very successfully nowadays. 

Merchants Of Air is no exception to the rule, while being at the same time pretty hard to digest for the metallic masses. This is instrumental progressive, including many elements from the above bands, but also other sounds like you’d encounter with The Prodigy, Massive Attack, or even Justin Timberlake, giving the 11 songs a rather particular feel. Nevertheless, Kong’s music is led for the most part by the groovy riffs used by the two guitarists (Tijs Keverkamp and David Kox). The bass is also very technical and tidy, written by Mark Drillich, who is also the band leader. They have a female drummer - Mandy Hopman - who fits perfectly with the horror atmosphere of this product.

It’s hard to name a song that stands out, especially since we are dealing with a pretty complex album, with songs that are not very similar. And this is why I believe that each song must be given its due attention. So I would recommend you didn’t in any way avoid sound contact with Merchants of Air, especially if you’re fans of progressive metals, because I assure you it’ll bring you in contact with rather unusual emotional states. Furthermore, this album can be heard (and downloaded) directly from their official bandcamp page, together with their entire discography.

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