Live on KBOO

Q'apla everybody! And after almost one and a half decades, the legend Stovokor is back! You may remember them from Trekkies 2, the first and only all-Klingon death metal band in the world, and since they released two songs back in the day I had been waiting some time for some more material to sink my sharpened teeth into. And that's what we finally got with Live on KBOO, the return of Stovokor. With an all new line-up - new vocalist, new guitarist, new drummer, and... well, this new record isn't actually that. It was released in 2017 on Bandcamp, but originally the recording is from 2004, from the time of their first and only demo Metal of Honor, so no new line-up here and no literally "new" material either. Just previously unheard material, but hey, I'll take it.

Back in the day when their first demo came out I wrote a review about it, a not so glowing one, and the band even put it on their Myspace, which was a thing back then, a "lukewarm" review as they called it, and their fans got a bit pissed. But honestly that demo just couldn't have lived up to any kind of expectations you'd have for it. If you're into any kind of metal music, you probably know your local bands that will never go anywhere because they just do that boring generic stuff that a million bands have done before, and done better, and they'll just stay local and obscure and play a few shows, have their handful of fans who are mostly fans because they know the guys and that's it. And strictly musically speaking, that's what the first Stovokor demo was, and that was the problem, it was strictly music, the whole Klingon image just didn't shine through in it in any way, you couldn't hear any of it, you could just hear that boring generic stuff they were playing. And that's why THIS record is such a godsend, well, a Kahless-send I suppose.

The music itself isn't anything different from the demo, it was recorded at the same time after all, but it's what's around it that really drives this one home. The official term is "framing", it's the context and presentation. It's a live recording, as the name suggests, not in front of an audience but live in studio at a radio station and it rules so much. Finally you got the whole Klingon thing going along with the music, banter, monologues, Klingons being Klingons. It's amazing, it's the same not-so-spectacular music they did on the demo, but it's a million times more fun because you finally hear them being Klingon with it, which is what Stovokor is all about after all. They do their generic but not bad tunes, but it's just such an incredibly fun ride when they're being warriors drunk on bloodwine bent on destroying puny humans all the way through, really shows the band at their absolute best and shows how glad every Trek fan should be to have them because they just add so much to Trek fandom, add so much fun and such a great feeling of being a part of something awesome, and I love every second of it.

It's great stuff, the sound is great on this one, clearly studio quality they got from KBOO and the banter and general Klingon stuff is mixed in perfectly. If you're into Star Trek and love yourself some old school death metal that's unspectacular but solid, elevated at least a dozen levels in quality by how awesome the presentation is, this is one record to get immediately and treasure for all eternity. It's all that's great about being a fan in one neat package. All that's missing is a bowl of Gagh!

-- Originally written for John Gill Historical Archives.