UMUR
Weed Out the Weak is the 3rd full-length studio album by Danish death metal/ thrash metal act Konkhra. A couple of rather spectacular lineup changes have occurred since the release of Spit or Swallow (1995). Drummer Johnny Nielsen has been replaced by Chris Kontos ( Machine Head, Testament, Exodus, Attitude Adjustment...etc) and guitarist Kim Mathiesen has been replaced by James Murphy ( Obituary, Death, Disincarnate, Cancer, Testament...etc). in addition to those two spectacular changes to the lineup bassist Lars Schmidt has also been replaced by new bassist Thomas Christensen. This means that only original member left is lead vocalist/ guitarist Anders Lundemark.
The music on Weed Out the Weak has shifted even more towards groove thrash than was the case on Spit or Swallow. This is to some extent still a death metal album but it´s not nearly as brutal as its predecessors. Instead I hear obvious influences from a band like Machine Head. A thrashy groove is now a big part of the sound on the album partially thanks to Chris Kontos but also because of the riffing style. The addition of James Murphy also means that there are many more guitar solos on this album compared to its predecessors. I wouldn´t call this his best performance though. Actually I quickly get tired of this new and less brutal change in style and while the compositional quality is high throughout the songs don´t really captivate me much.
The production is not as powerful as I would have liked. I haven´t heard the 1998 re-mixed version, so that one might sound better. This original version is a bit lifeless if you ask me.
Weed Out the Weak was a step away from death metal for Konkhra and while it could have worked fine if the songs were really exciting, my opinion is that it doesn´t work very well because the songs are average at best. An average album that deserves a 3 star rating from me. I´m sure there are fans out there who´ll disagree with me, but at this point I stopped purchasing Konkhra´s albums ( that was back then. I have since listened to all subsequent albums).