Kowloon Walled City
Container Ships
Reviewed by Joe Tingle
Kowloon Walled City’s new record Container Ships has made its late year release and, unfortunately I’m afraid it is going to slip through the holiday cracks. Container Ships features all the trudge and sludge of a Mastodon record, but lacks technicality and melodic sensitivity. Post-rock influences are noted, but only in superficial ways that never attempt to genuinely distance Kowloon Walled City from their hundreds of genre peers. Atonal vocals and riffs that sound straight from Deftones’ Diamond Eyes characterize Container Ships, and serve as a detriment more than half of its songs.
Somewhat of a hodgepodge of modern, psuedo-experimental metal influences, Container Ships poses the listener with a question: does the world need another band like Baroness? KWC are the commendable type of band that utilizes websites like bandcamp to get their music out there for the masses, and they’re just the type of band that I do love rooting for. But, as long as they’re releasing relatively colorless music in a genre that’s already so over-saturated with material, I can’t imagine the project being very successful. At least they sound like they might be fun live.
