Ten Ton John – Kingdom Rise

September 20, 2023

Ten Ton John has been working in the Dutch Metal scene since 2017 and has already released a few singles on Youtube and Spotify. This month however the band has finally released their debut album, Kingdom Rise. Kingdom Rise is a collection of already released and new material. The band will officially present this album during the album release party on Friday the 29th in WPC Nederland Drie. Let’s dive into these 14 tracks to prepare for the show!

About Ten Ton John

Ten Ton John is a four-piece groove metal band from Den Haag. Besides having the groovy elements, that remind us of Machine Head, the band takes influence from thrash metal and dark metalheads Gojira as well. They have been working on their stage performance and new tracks for a while, but finally, the band released a debut album. Not much is known about the band, or at least not on the internet, so sadly there’s not much else we can tell you. Straight into the music it is, then!

The Album

Kingdom Rise is a collection of tracks that Ten Ton John already released over the years, complete with some brand-new tracks. The first track this band released, War of Lies, already dates back to 2019. The band has had enough time to perfect their art since then. Their style, however, didn’t change much. It’s still the same groovy, tracks, that kind of remind us of Machine Head on some tracks and Gojira on others. Especially the track Down reminds me a lot of Gojira.

The album opens with Infected Minds, a new track. After a short intro, we immediately dive into blast beats and grooving guitars. It fits the tracks we’ve heard from Ten Ton John before perfectly, and the atmospheric parts break up the song nicely. Stand My Ground, the following track, has been released before. Nice to know: the band released a hardstyle version of this track as well that’s also a lot of fun to listen to. The energy is strong with this track and it is for sure a moshpit killer when played live. Momentum is again a new release. With the progressive riffs in the intro, it has some Gojira hints again. Besides that though it’s mostly a heavy rock track, with the vocals kind of leaning towards Machine Head, especially in the cleaner, gritty parts.

With Spoils of War we are back in mosh-pit territory again. The whole track feels like Stand My Ground part 2 and it’s smart that the band put a track like Momentum in between. The next track Backbone is also a track that got released earlier. Groovy, punky, energy seamlessly transitions us from the previous track into this one. It’s not very unique, but nice to listen to nonetheless.

Run starts with a clean, almost balad-like, intro again like Infected Minds. The verse however borders on hardcore, which definitely makes this an interesting track to listen to. The verse is definitely more on the darker side. The song really comes to life with the bass and guitar riff after the first two minutes. There is that progressive goodness again that makes Ten Ton John stand out amongst the Dutch Metal scene.

Down continues on the progressive, unique line, with some Gojira influences again. Dark, low, mid-tempo riffs give this track a whole different vibe than the energetic tracks from the beginning of this album. Besides the guitar parts, it’s also Rob van der Scheers’ vocals that give us that Gojira vibes. Color it Red is a new release on this album. Again a mid-tempo intro, turning into a heavy rock track, layered with some guitar solos. Another track where the band shows their musicality with an interesting break in the middle of the song.

Into War starts with a clean, balad-like intro again, with a dark undertone that fits the title. It’s an interlude that leads up to War of Lies. Again, already previously released, but it fits the rest of the tracks very well. The band has done a good job of sticking to their own style. This is probably the slowest song on the album, taking inspiration from Doom-metal as well. Fear of Mind takes us back to the more energetic songs again after the slower middle part of the album. Not that we needed it but it’s a nice change of pace again. Rob van der Scheer shows us that his clean, melodic vocals fit this type of music very well too.

End of Hope is probably the fastest track, and a crowd pleasure with a very catchy chorus as well. I am the Enemy starts off with a groovy intro and stays with the heavy rock vibe for the entire song. The entire track is pushed along with the groovy, almost trance-like guitar strums. The final track on the album is I do not seek, I find. This has the most interesting intro of all the tracks on this album so it makes for a good closing track. Heavy on the Gojira inspiration again, this shows why Ten Ton John is unique in the Dutch scene. Especially the clean vocals in the chorus and the chord progression that follows show that influence best. This track, and probably End of Hope showcases the broad range of Ten Ton John well.

Final Verdict

Kingdom Rise has been a few years in the making and I’m glad that the band took the time to combine all their tracks in one album. For those who have been following the band for a while, it’s nice to have a physical piece of art, and they get 4 new tracks as well. For those of you for whom this is the first introduction to the band, Kingdom Rise is a nice compilation of all the band has to offer. If you’re only going to listen to two tracks of this album, listen to I do not seek, I find and End of Hope or Stand my Ground. For fans of Gojira and probably Machine Head, although more old school metalheads will probably enjoy Ten Ton John as well.