Although I only discovered them about a year ago, Sweden’s Kongh quickly became one of my favorite new bands.  Their brutally heavy, almost aggravatingly slow, brand of sludgey, droney post-doom really resonated with me from the first time I heard a track from their 2007 debut Counting Heartbeats.  Sadly, as much as I love that album (it can be streamed/downloaded on Bandcamp), I haven’t seen it available on CD anywhere.

However, I did snatch up a copy of its follow-up, 2009’s Shadows of the Shapeless, which was released in North America through Seventh Rule Recordings, as soon as I saw it at my local record store.  That’s an incredible album as well, so I am beyond excited to learn that they are nearly ready to begin recording a third album!

That announcement came yesterday (Wednesday, 13 June) morning, along with information about the band’s new record deal…

We are glad to announce that we just inked a new record deal with Agonia Records. We will start recording our new album at the end of the summer and it will be released worldwide in early 2013. Here is the full statement from Agonia concerning the signing:

“It is with great pleasure Agonia Records welcome Doom Metal outfit Kongh to the label’s roster.

This relatively new band, formed back in 2004, has quickly risen amongst the ranks of Swedish acts worth watching, being nominated to the P3 Guld Award (Swedish equivalent of the Grammy Awards) for their debut album. After a successful and intense tour with critically acclaimed Yob in September and October of 2011, Kongh focused on writing their 3rd to date album: yet untitled and expected for early 2013.

The band has issued the following statement regarding the new deal and upcoming release:

Three years have passed since our last album was released, and we’re stoked to announce that the song writing for a whole new album is now finalized. We’ll skip the in-depth details for now since it’s nearly possible to give a sensible description of your own music, but there’s definitely some new twists and dimensions there as well as the traditional Kongh riffage. One thing we can say for sure is that we’re very enthusiastic about the songs and we cannot wait to enter the studio! It will happen at the end of the summer, with Karl Daniel Lidén (Dozer, Switchblade) in the engineering seat. Another thing we’re happy about is the new record deal with Agonia Records. We’ve been in touch with them for well over a year now, and while we’ve had a few offers from different labels, Agonia was the one which seemed to suit us best. Our expectations are high and we’re sure this will turn out great.”

 
Check out Kongh’s first two albums using these Bandcamp widgets, then join me in congratulating the band and the label on this new partnership!

 
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Kongh: website, Facebook, Bandcamp
Agonia Records: website, Facebook, webstore