Review: Kublai Khan – “Balancing Survival And Happiness”

Kublai Khan

“Balancing Survival and Happiness”

Label – Artery Records

Release Date – April 29th 2014

Rating – 4/5

Its fast, its heavy, its angry. No its not Oprah or Paula Deen chasing butter. It’s the new Kublai Khan album, Balancing Survival and Happiness out now via Artery Recordings.

Just landing over the 23 minute mark, this album wastes no time kicking in your teeth, in fact this happens over and over again through the short time this record is on. Although short, this is a close to perfect release. Chugs and drums seem to be exchanging blows. You can feel the hatred in vocalist Matt Honeycutt’s yells. This trait is something that very few bands actually accomplish, reverting to deep not understandable gutterals.

Ghost Pains (the lead single) is very much a stand out track but the rest of the album maintains the strength and integrity these guys have been known to hold up. On top of the aggression, this album isn’t over produced. A lot of the tricks found on other releases in the last few years are not present. This is amazing because that ruins the integrity of many releases.

All in all, this is a record you need to buy and catch these guys at a show near you!