Klonns

Reviews

Klonns Heaven LP

I had read some good reviews of this LP by Tokyo’s KLONNS, and since I loved their Vvlgar EP on Black Konflik (they covered ABRAHAM CROSS and I’m an easy crowd to please) and enjoyed their Paris gig last year, I was rather looking forward to enthusiastically reviewing Heaven. And it may indeed have to do with rather high personal expectations, but this LP does not do it for me, unfortunately. It is certainly not lacking in terms of intensity and determination, and they do have moments when they hit the high-energy and triumphant traditional Japanese hardcore sound right, but they mostly sound too much like a lot of current US hardcore bands to me, with too many of those modern mosh parts and serpentine riffs. Not a bad LP in itself and by no means a bad band, but not what I am looking for in hardcore punk right now.

Klonns / Soiled Hate Different Senses split cassette

The cover of this split is a black flail, a medieval weapon with two spiked balls attached to a stick with chains, and that’s a perfect visual metaphor for what’s inside. The three KLONNS tracks are unrelentingly harsh Japanese hardcore. SOILED HATE are in a similar vein, but with more varied rhythms and chuggier moments reminiscent of NYC hardcore. “Persecution Mania” stands out as a dissonant ripper with a chanting, higher-pitched vocalist providing an interesting counterpoint. They also do a KLONNS cover, which you like to see in a split. Overall, these two bands play raw, powerful, and tight. The split closes with two tracks that are experimental synth covers of a song from each band, both with somewhat hardcore (in the techno sense) gabber vibes.

Klonns Crow EP

Tokyo, Japan’s KLONNS come out swinging with this blistering new EP. The influence from classic Japanese hardcore bands like LIP CREAM and DEATH SIDE is very apparent, but do not mistake KLONNS for being a worship band. The sound on the Crow EP is super ferocious and raw. The instrumentation makes this record sound like it’s coming apart at the seams, and the vocalist sounds so hoarse that his throat could be bleeding. This is a violent, vicious listen. Pure hardcore punk.

Klonns Amon / Gehenna 7″

“New Wave of Japanese Hardcore.” This is what one can read on the enigmatic Japanese hardcore outfit KLONNS’ Bandcamp page. With eight releases to their name, this band is back with a killer 7”. The best way to describe this band is a Japanese version of HOAX; a grainy, disgusting mass of angry-sounding hardcore, fit for any violent moshpit. This 7″ includes two tracks: “Amon,” featuring Hate from MOONSCAPE, starts with a FRAMTID-esque build up but then explodes into mid-tempo hardcore Á  la HOAX. Then “Gehenna,” featuring Aisha from IGNITION BLOCK M, is another mid-tempo banger with female vocals to add a bit more flavour to the track. Definitely putting the hard in hardcore.

Klonns Vulgar CD

Holy shit. This is my shit—hyper-distorted pummeling D-beat noise. I know, I know… but seriously KLONNS is like the heaviness of COFFINS, the gnarly ferocity of D-CLONE, the driving beat of SYMPTOM and the embittered sincerely of FRAMTID. Fly your brain into the blacked clouds with this brief demonstration of gargantuan hardcore noise and gut-churning death-beat punk. I’ve been so fucking frustrated with this COVID-19 pandemic and our living situations… this was the guttural brain-cooking death punk attack I needed. Desperately. The last track is an ABRAHAM CROSS cover. Killer! Recommended for simple-minded D-beat Tokyo crasher crust romantics. NWOJHC!