KONKHRA is a death metal band from Denmark, who formed in 1990. Somehow, I have never heard of them before the promo for “Sad Plight of Lucifer” came to me. This album is their eighth full-length album; they have also released three demos, three EPs, a live album, a split, and a compilation. While it has some bright spots here and there, unfortunately this album really didn't grab me all that much. I wouldn’t say it's a terrible album; mileage will vary depending on tastes so you are more than welcome to disagree with me and give it a chance. But for me personally, I just found it to be average and not something I will pick up again after the review period is over.

Although planted in the death metal category of extremity, much of the album seems to be more groove-oriented than anything. There isn’t anything wrong with that but it keeps the song’s from standing out from each other—there is definitely a sameness to the quality of the songs and not much difference happens in any of them to make the album stand out. With that being said, there is a certain charm to a lot of people for such groovy music. Several of the riffs are decent and, of course, I bet these songs translate very well live because they are head bangable as hell. I do like the guitar tone—it’s appropriately evil for the dark subject matter. The bass isn’t bad either and can be quite abrasive, sometimes even more than the guitars. The drums are solid as well but, much like the guitars, really don’t go beyond serviceable.

The vocals are a point of contention for me; they aren’t bad but it seems the vocalist can’t decide if he wants to go full on death metal or stick with a more modern deep throat roar that’s somewhere between a true growl and a harsh yell. The title track opens the album and it’s a good indicator if you’ll like the rest of the album or not because the rest of the songs follow suit. The riffs in the beginning are catchy and complemented very well by the drums. But after the first minute or so, everything just goes on auto-pilot and fatigue sets in early.

The album is at its best when they embrace a more brutal, full speed ahead style of death metal such as on “Artificial Sun.” This song goes for the throat and gets the point very quickly. The slower tempos peppered throughout actually help their sound as it spaces out the notes rather than throwing them out and seeing what sticks. The final song, “Tentacles of Madness,” offers a twist around the around the three minute mark of a melodic, clean section that breaks up the monotony; if the album had more moments like this but stretched a little, with a bit more depth added then I think it would be a boost in their sound.

Like I said, KONKHRA’s “Sad Plight of Lucifer,” isn’t an inherently terrible album—it just isn’t very exciting or gripping to me. Death metal has had a GREAT year and I can name dozens of fantastic death metal releases for 2024 so it’s going to take more than this to stand out among the crowd.