Krux - III: He Who Sleeps Amongst The Stars

Published December 06 2011

*=Staff's pick	He Who Sleeps Amongst The Stars The Hades Assembly* Emily Payne (And The Black Maze)* Small Deadly Curses Prince AzaarAnd The Invisible Pagoda* The Death Farm A Place Of Crows

Genre	Doom Metal	Mats Levén	Vocals
Tracks	7	Jörgen Sandström	Guitar
Running time	45 Min.	Fredrik Åkesson	Guitar
Label	GMR Music Group	Leif Edling	Bass
Release	21 November 2011	Peter Stjärnvind	Drums
Country	Sweden	Carl Westholm	Keyboard
Producer	-
Similar artists	Candlemass

One thing I've learned to expect is that when Candlemass mastermind Leif Edling is writing music, things seldom go wrong. The third album from Krux is no exception from this rule although it's very different from the first two albums, for better and for worse.

While the earlier records had a pretty raw production, with a guitar sound almost reminding of the Swedish death metal scene, this record takes another turn with a more epic and majestic sound. At first I had some problems with this but the more I listen to the album, the better it sounds. Although I would have loved another record in the same vein as the first two, this feels like a natural step and it still feels a lot like Krux.

What about the songs? Apart from Small Deadly Curses and The Death Farm, which I find pretty boring, the songs are fantastic, incredibly heavy and very diverse with the eleven minutes long Prince AzaarAnd The Invisible Pagoda standing out as the absolute highlight.

Mats Levén does a solid job singing, as always. One interesting detail, however, is that JörgenSandström - known for his vocal duties in bands such as Grave, Torture Division and The Project Hate MCMXCIX - gets to growl at the end of The Hades Assembly. This is interesting because, apparently, Leif Edling is no fan of growling at all and if I'm not mistaken, this is the first time he's included growling in one of his songs.

If you like heavy music, check out this album. And if you've never heard of Krux, be sure to check out their other albums as well. This is a less depressive andmore epic album than its predecessors - and as it turns out, that's not necessarily a bad thing.