After nearly a decade of silence, Kongh returns.
Between 2007 and 2013, Kongh released three critically acclaimed albums that established the band as one of Sweden's most distinctive voices in heavy music. The band built a devoted international following through extensive touring alongside acts such as Meshuggah and YOB before entering an extended hiatus.
Kongh now re-emerges with a record that does not attempt to replicate the past, but instead continues and sharpens it. Based on ideas accumulated over the last decade and written and developed over six months of intensive work, the new album represents a focused continuation of the band's established sound, while remaining rooted in its signature blend of crushing heaviness, vast atmosphere, and hypnotic repetition. Alongside this core identity, the music incorporates electronics, layered textures, and some of the most ambitious compositions in Kongh's history.
The album was written and recorded under the direction of founding member David Johansson, who performed guitars, bass, electronics, and lead vocals, while also handling the mixing process. Drawing on years of experience gained both within Kongh and through his time as a touring guitarist for Cult of Luna between 2013 and 2019, Johansson shaped a record that is both deeply personal and structurally expansive.
The first glimpse into this new era comes with "Staining the Ether", presented here as a specially edited ten-minute single version, while the full album version unfolds across nineteen minutes. The track moves through overwhelming weight, expansive sonic space, and moments of fragile and eerie restraint, offering a condensed entry point into the broader world of the album.
The album also features contributions from several key figures in the Scandinavian heavy music scene, including three of Johansson's former bandmates from Cult of Luna. Christian Augustin performed drums and engineered the vocal sessions, while Kristian Karlsson engineered and mixed the drum recordings. The album was mastered by Magnus Lindberg, who also worked on Kongh's 2013 release, reinforcing a sense of continuity in sound and vision. Additional backing vocals are provided by Jörgen Sandström, known for his work with Grave, Entombed, and many other seminal acts.
Rather than functioning as a reunion in the nostalgic sense, Kongh's fourth album stands as a continuation - a record shaped by absence, persistence, and renewal. It reconnects with the foundations of the band while presenting its most focused and fully realized expression to date.
