Kurokuma – Of Amber and Sand | Album Review

Time comes for us all, and for Kurokuma 'time' has come and been addressed on the new record Of Amber and Sand

“Make sludge grim again.” If ever there was a slogan to hang your hat on, especially one that speaks to the dark grinding nature of sludge metal, then this one would be it. Kurokuma (that band from the YouTube docuseries about getting stoned and touring in Japan) bring their latest offering the rolling tray, and it’s a rip roaring exploration through genre bending sludge metal and beyond.

Kurokuma have chosen the massively dense concept of ‘time’ to base this album around, which only adds to the gravitas of the complete piece. Throughout the album the theme of infinite time (sand) is juxtaposed with that of the frozen moment (amber), this is reflected on the cover art, an mantis frozen in stasis inside a lump of amber.

Opening track ‘I am Forever,’ shows off what the band are all about on this record. Where Born of Obsidian (2022) was more experimental, leaning less to the metal side, Of Amber and Sand, has more meat on its bones, more metal centric and riff heavy, producing a driving sound that creates a sense of urgency that wasn’t there on the previous records. The band is now a truly international entity with bassist Zakk Wells being the only member currently residing in the UK, and this is reflected in the middle eastern and Balkans inspired instrumentation towards the end of this track. Kurokuma have managed to blend the grindy sludgey doom style guitars, with these external influences masterfully, as has been the case for all their releases up to now. This is a band who doesn’t shy away from experiment, and to be blunt about it, rarely fucking misses when they do.

‘Death No More,’ eases in with some more interesting influences this time recalling some of Mastodon’s earlier work before it bottoms out into a delightfully heavy section where the pace gradually picks up, only to introduce Jacob Mazlum’s gritty vocals and a pounding palm muted section. The journey isn’t over there though, the pace changes again, the chugging intensifies as do the vocals and impetus of the track.

This record not only shows off how Kurokuma effortlessly blend external influences into their specific brand of sludgey death doom, but it also unveils a band who have worked towards a goal and produced some of the heaviest, yet experimental work of the last few years. By the end of the record, you feel like you have been on a journey with them, through the eons of time, the creep or decay and the fortifying freezing nature of amber.