7 (OR 8)

After wrestling with a more listener-friendly Hard Rock style on their previous outing ("Cosy Moments", 2013), Kinski gets the formula right in their latest-to-date album "7 (or 8)", so named because apparently no one could unravel the band's convoluted discography (**).

This set follows the same headbanging trend as its predecessor, but seems to have been galvanized by a renewed sense of self-confidence and musical cool: the latter reflected in the cover portrait of indie screen idols John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands, with no mention of a band name or album title.

There's a higher percentage of instrumental tracks too: a good sign that the quartet hasn't sold out yet, despite the more elemental songwriting. Further reassurance can be heard in the album closer "Bulletin of the International String Figure Association": a slow-burn anthem clocking in at one-second shy of twelve full minutes, and refining the usual twin-guitar blitzkrieg with oscillators, synth textures, and pianos (unplugged Grand and electric Fender Rhodes).

This one track is enough to justify the band's continued presence on this site, but not as Psychedelic/Space Rock anymore. File the new album under Heavy Prog instead, and I do mean Heavy: what it lacks in scope it gains in concentrated energy, aggression, and spiffed-up garage band enthusiasm.

(** The full list includes official LP's, self-released limited editions, and split-albums shared with likeminded noisemakers such as Bardo Pond and Acid Mothers Temple. I'm guessing the 2004 album "Don't Climb On and Take the Holy Water", recorded under the pseudonym Herzog while the band was between drummers, is the missing piece of the numerical puzzle)