Konkhra - Nothing is Sacred

After 2003's well-received “Reality Check” work, Denmark’s leading Death-Metal act Konkhra dropped off the radar and was never to be heard from again.
Until two years ago that is, when word got out that guitarist and vocalist Anders Lundemark had regrouped with bassist Lars Schmidt and were preparing to release a new album featuring new members Mads Lauridsen on drums and Michael Skovbakke on lead guitar, thought it’s former Death/Testament guitarist James Murphy that plays on the new album.
On first listens, “Nothing is Sacred” sounds way more vile and brutal than its antecessor, like a musical statement of anger and repulsion at today’s collapsing society and the suffocating influence of religion.
Bandleader Anders Lundemark is angry at the world, that much is obvious on the very first moment the album’s introduction “Prelude to Prejudice”- a spoken sample of a George W. Bush Jr. (rightly altered) speech ends and “Hail to the King” kicks in straight into a frantic Death-Metal blast-beat. Heaving a furiously fast and severe drumming along with a harsh and brutal riffing, “Hail to the King” goes straight for the jugular and only reprieves momentarily when guitarist James Murphy churns out a remarkably technical and lethal solo. Having a talented and experienced guitarist like James Murphy as session member, it’s actually his third Konkhra release, obviously means that there is more than its fair share of dazzlingly and razor-sharp lead-work throughout “Nothing is Sacred”.
On the following theme “Religion is a Whore”, the guitarist weaves one of such killer solos on top of a more Thrashy and catchy approach from the remaining band, a direction that brings to mind the mid-period of Sadus, a band with whom Konkhra always shared a certain similarity in the way they blend Death and Thrash-Metal riffs together.
For the remaining part of “Nothing is Sacred”, it sounds almost like the Danes have recaptured some of neck-snapping brutality that was one of the most revered attributes of Konkhra’s first works, just check out the relentless brutality of numbers like “Defy” and “The Promise of Antagonism”, though we cannot see the new work as a record designed to rehash the past.
All things considered, “Nothing is Sacred” is not a bad comeback album at all! (7/10)

Band info: www.konkhra.com
Label info: www.targetdistribution.dk