{"id":25778,"date":"2018-08-06T13:49:05","date_gmt":"2018-08-06T11:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dutchmetalmaniac.com\/?p=25778"},"modified":"2018-09-04T02:31:33","modified_gmt":"2018-09-04T00:31:33","slug":"review-kuenring-kuenring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dutchmetalmaniac.com\/2018\/08\/review-kuenring-kuenring\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: K\u00fcenring – K\u00fcenring"},"content":{"rendered":"

The mid 2018 released self-titled album K\u00fcenring<\/em> from the Austrian band K\u00fcenring is a heavy metal bombshell, but a bombshell with an inscription on the side “Happy greetings from the 80’s!” and it left me from the first few chords with a smile on my face. To be honest: I am a bit biased where it comes to the golden days of NWOBHM and this album, albeit Austrian, could as well have its roots into the Bay Area.<\/p>\n

The power packed album is almost an homage to the early roots of heavy metal, the time where Metallica’s Kill ’em All<\/em> was just released, Bonded By Blood<\/em> from Exodus was just announced, Ronny James Dio touring with Dio, but – to be fair – with a few tricks from the present day picked up along the way. I said ‘almost an homage’ with a reason, because it isn’t an homage: it’s a good album and does not deserve to be put down as a rip-off. Although, truth be told, I must remind myself not to attempt to find the original inspiration for each song.<\/p>\n

The name, derived from a 12th-16th century ancient bloodline of Austrian knights, carries the “obligated metal umlaut” with pride – their hearts rooted into metal and into the Austrian soil. And rooted into metal is to be taken literal. Besides from the cover art one might argue the album is a clich\u00e9 metal product, but I beg to differ. Even though it depends heavily onto the solid metal works of old it’s an epic album and, with some remarks, should be seen as it is: an incredible well-done debut album. Front man (and bassist Stefan Gutenthaler) might lack the expressive -and sometimes over the top- vocals from some of the demi-gods of the 80’s, but -again- we should not compare!<\/p>\n

Loosely following the track list of the album, some notes on the album. The album starts with Streetfight<\/em> which does not leave any question marks: this is straight forward metal to be continued with Into the Night<\/em>. Odyssey<\/em> is aptly named: it’s an odyssey of proportion with enough riffing and solos to leave a mark.<\/p>\n

Autumn<\/em>, the instrumental ballad on the album is a bit of a hate-or-love-it track. It sets the bar for future expanding dual guitar compositions, but – in the eye of the beholder – it feels stretched a bit too far to stay comfortable – a track which, in my case, will be skipped more often than listened completely. From Unknown<\/em>, the fifth track and forward the tracks are more elaborated and less straight forward 80’s riffing. A special note on Hounds of K\u00fcenring<\/em>, the second to last track of the album. It could be me mistaken, but in my opinion it’s the bands’ anthem. It’s a conclusion and a summary of the album.<\/p>\n

The production is a good compromise between the dynamic sounds of the early 80’s and the fully pumped loudness war and triggered albums. It has a nice organic feel without sounding too much like a garage recording. With one – albeit minor – note: the last song of the album Rise of the Madman<\/em> feeling rushed and messy. On the album in general I can say it’s a nice addition to anyone liking straight heavy metal and\/or the golden days of NWOBHM.<\/p>\n

K\u00fcenring Facebook<\/a>
\nK\u00fcenring Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The mid 2018 released self-titled album K\u00fcenring from the Austrian band K\u00fcenring is a heavy metal bombshell, but a bombshell with an inscription on the side “Happy greetings from the 80’s!” and it left me from the first few chords with a smile on my face. To be honest: I am a bit biased where […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":25781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"You can now read our review of K\u00fcenring's self-titled album!","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[7100],"tags":[7248,5],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.dutchmetalmaniac.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/cover.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nReview: K\u00fcenring - K\u00fcenring - DutchMetalManiac<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dutchmetalmaniac.com\/2018\/08\/review-kuenring-kuenring\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review: K\u00fcenring - K\u00fcenring - DutchMetalManiac\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The mid 2018 released self-titled album K\u00fcenring from the Austrian band K\u00fcenring is a heavy metal bombshell, but a bombshell with an inscription on the side “Happy greetings from the 80’s!” and it left me from the first few chords with a smile on my face. 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