Location: Dallas, Texas
Country: USA
Genre: Slug metal
Full Length: Lazer Blood
Format: CD, vinyl, digital
Label: Memory Terminal Records
Release date: March 13, 2026
The first question I thought of while researching Kallohonka is: do we really need another subgenre title in 2026? The industry already has so many labels, and categories keep multiplying; some of them change over time. For the most part the answer depends on how a band can grow into something different but relatable, (instinctively or by a deliberate process) and how their style can be accurately described. Granted there are many bands that broadened their boundaries and found ways to make their evolution work. Still, what’s most important is for a band’s openness to speak for itself.
Rather than being over descriptive, Kallohonka simply chose “slug metal” to describe themselves. It’s certainly different; something from left field, not what people would expect a band’s sound to be known as. So what should we expect from a term like “slug metal”? While metal plays a small but significant part in how the band present themselves on this debut album, Decibel magazine compared them to Butthole Surfers, presumably for the disjointed instability they were known for. But Kallohonka push that disjointed instability much further with gratuitous psychedelia and stoner rock influence.
To get a handle on how they wanted their debut "Lazer Blood" to sound, bassist James Magruder co-produced it with Matt Pence, a producer and drummer known for his work with Centro-matic, South San Gabriel, and Will Johnson. Before co-producing at Argyle, Texas's Echo Lab, Pence's experience was mostly in country and indie rock. I imagine it was a big leap to a band as unpredictably experimental as Kallohonka. A collaborative effort with someone who helped write the material was vital to bring out its foundation in punk, its biting edge, and its singular wall of sound, among other things.
Over musicianship that slices like a dulled razor, the band’s psychedelic qualities launch prevailing impressions of anxiety, unease and distress leading to lunacy. Vocalist Anna Carson is somewhere between the late great Wendy O. Williams and an escapee from a lunatic asylum, as she howls and shrieks through the songs until her throat is raw like a psycho chick whose would-be boyfriend didn’t feel the same way. Through the sections rooted in metal-edged punk and those giving psychedelic rock a manic edge, her vocals are up front whenever they appear, elevating the sounds behind them.
“Lazer Blood” is accompanied by a brief bio piece on the Bandcamp page of the band’s label. Going by that, the psychedelic sections overlapping their songwriting represent a series of experiments with hallucinogenic drugs administered by secret government and religious groups, possibly in preparation for a major celestial event for reasons unknown. The tight, tense quality of the guitars, bass and drums, along with the agonized, harmonized shrieks and screams, convey the detrimental effects these experiments had on their minds and the resulting regression to a primal animal state as their brains were irreparably damaged.
Alec Rabb’s percussion punches through the sharp, prominent bass, hard edged guitars a dank, soulless keyboard sound underscoring the psychedelic keys, together with horns creating an ambiance that’s somehow off center and chaotic but still consistent. “Psychic Surgery” does the most convincing job putting across the mental state of the subjects involved in the hallucinogenic experiments, if they’re meant to be part of the story described above. Shot at bizarre angles and presenting a state of hallucinogenic influence, the video for the song presents the perspective Kallohonka wants you to picture "Lazer Blood." –Dave Wolff
Lineup:
Amie Carson: Vocals
James Magruder: Bass, howls, auxiliary whatever
Jason Mullins: Guitars
Alec Rabb: Drums
Dennis Gonzalez: Horns
Sarah Ruth Alexander: Vocals
Jenni Raab: Screams
Track list:
1. Experimenting with the Dead
2. Robotically Birthed
3. DMT
4. Simulated Experience
5. Heaven's Gate
6. Psychic Surgery
7. Leeches
8. Onward to Death
No comments:
Post a Comment