King Stench - Ungod

KING STENCH - Ungod (DEATH ROT - CD 2011)

I wasn’t familiar with King Stench until yesterday really, when I received their second full length CD “Ungod”. It was sent to me from Ohio, USA, where the band and their label Death Rot, reside. Well, I must say that this was yet another “damn, I have no idea what to expect from this” kind of release. Just by looking at the artwork for “Ungod” my expectations were mixed. I have read that it is supposed to be death metal band, but the photo on the cover is totally misleading. You know, I won’t blame you also if by looking at it you’ll think of pure, primitive black metal bands… A chap in full corpsepaint make up  - what else can that be, right? Funny is that personally I have two connotations when looking at it – first one is black metal, but second would be these monkeys from “Planet of the Apes” movies hehe. Ridiculous, I know, but that was one of my first impressions with the artwork of “Ungod”. Anyway, I wonder what aim King Stench had when taking this photo for the cover. Did they really wanted to mislead people or it has some different meaning, which I cannot see now?

Now speaking of the music… Well, I didn’t really know if there will be anything good about King Stench music at all, no expectations whatsoever, but I am happy to say that “Ungod” turned out to be really enjoyable album… and more so, there are some fragments on it, which are just killer. So definitely I can already say that this band is better than I hoped it will be. Obviously their music doesn’t bring anything new or extraordinary to the table, it is rather common type of death metal, spiced with some black metal ingredients here and there… But King Stench is not kind of band, which would combine with too many different styles or techniques, or with different than traditional instruments, so the music is pretty straight forward, aggressive and vicious death / black metal. But there’s quite lot diversity in this music. Couple of first songs, which are faster, with a mix of growled and shrieking vocals, sounds like death / black metal… Actually that first song titled “Ungod” – atmosphere wise as well as with that archaic, simple riffing and demonic vocals reminds me Dark Funeral’s cover of Von “Satanic Blood”. Later there are even more black metal accents spread through the whole album, like that fast opening riff in Marduk vein in “Hell Hounds” – by the way, what a killer song it is, very diverse and also melodic here and there. There are some more similarities to Marduk, but to their early LPs like “Dark Endless” and “Those of the Unlight”, in my opinion. From the other hand “Goat Lord” has a very old school riffing, which would even fit such thrash / black metal bands as Aura Noir and more so, the mighty Darkthrone. And among all that there’s brutal, aggressive death metal, sometimes with more harmonious patterns, but generally very dark and cold sounding music. Quite often it reminds me some of my favourite Acheron albums, like in the song called “The End”, which certainly is one of my favourites, with great riffs, vocals’ sound and arrangements… Its ending part, with melancholic, melodic riffs is just excellent. With this song, as well as such “False Prophet” you will realize how diverse, but also well composed, “Ungod” is. In the end I can just say then that I am quite impressed by King Stench. It’s totally unknown band, I bet not many of you have ever heard of them before, but it turned out that “Ungod” – which is their second album after 2009’s “Visions of Death” – is a solid and very good album. I recommend you getting it then, do not hesitate!

Standout tracks: “False Prophet”, “The End”, “Goat Lord”, “Hell Hounds”

Final rate: 70/100

Just kidding here, but cannot help it... hehe!