“Kouwe Makkers” is a Dutch band formed in 1999 as ‘The Lord Have Mercies”, in 2000 they change their band name into “Kouwe Makkers” (it means something like cool pals). From then on they also start to write their own songs. In 2002 they decide to continue as a four piece band and since then they’ve released two full lengths (kelderpop, 2002 and Disco Rigor Mortis, 2004). On March 18th they will release their third album; ‘Valse Lucht’

‘Valse Lucht’ is my first meeting with “Kouwe Makkers”. The album still grows every time I listen to it, and it grows during its play time as well. The first few songs are not that bad, but they can’t really satisfy me either. The album opens with its poorest song; ‘Trein’ a boring, but aggressive nu-metal song. While the cd continues the quality level of the songs absolutely grows. Although the song quality increases the album still won’t really convince me.
But then, out of the bleu and totally unexpected there is ‘Lauwe Gasten’ the seventh song on the album. This song kicks ass big time and for the first time I got the feeling I want start slam dancing in my living room. With this song all hell has absolutely broken loose. The cooperation with the rappers from HIV turns out to be very strong and absolutely tastes like more. With ‘De Godvergeten Satan op lichtmetalen wielen’ the band continues straight on with another killer of a song, their style moves from nu-metal to melodic hardcore/punk.

But only for a short while, the band finishes the album with the thrashing ‘Rijk over de brug’ and the very grooving but melodic ‘spiekerbox’. Although the album might have a rather poor start they absolutely make it up with you, especially during the second half of the cd.

Their musical style lies somewhere in between Dutch bands as “Space Marines” and “Raggende Manne”. It’s very hard to compare them to an international act because I’ve hardly ever heard this type of metal outside the Netherlands. The best description is probably nu-metal.

Because of the fact that there are some Dutch words and terms in this review I decided to add a small dictionary in stead of putting the translation between brackets after each term or word. (I think this makes it easier to read).
Dictionary: kelderpop = basementpop, valse lucht = false air, trein= train, lauwe gasten = cool guys, de Godvergeten Satan op lichtmetalen wielen = the God-forsaken Satan on light weighted metal wheels, rijk over de brug = rich over the bridge, spiekerbox = Dutch dialect for a pair of jeans, Raggende Manne = Thrashing Males.