I’ve always liked the idea of Krallice, more than I have actually liked Krallice. Held in suspicion by purists as hipster “boutique” black metal from Brooklyn, the band found more favor among alt-celebrities like Ryan Adams and the members of My Morning Jacket than they did the insular and often overly-judgmental metal underground. As a metalhead who has always had mixed feelings about other metalheads, I loved that Krallice’s debut album made it onto Adam’s Top Ten List in 2008, further pissing off purists, more than I actually liked that record. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a solid record with some incredible tracks, but there is a certain monotony that eats away at the overall quality of the album. More than anything, their debut stoked the fires of anticipation for their sophomore release “Dimensional Bleedthrough.” Unfortunately, for me, that record ended up being the biggest musical disappointment of 2009. The album was marred by an over-emphasis on the band’s extreme technical prowess, which completely overshadowed everything else. In the end, it sounded like the black metal equivalent of Yngwie Malmsteen; all chops and no soul. It was bad enough that for me Krallice quickly went from being ‘the next big thing’ to an ‘also ran’ in my book.When the track “The Clearing,” from the band’s third album “Diotima,” debuted on Stereogum in January it was with reluctance that I clicked the play button. Surprisingly the piece was more focused and more vicious than anything the group had previously produced, enough so to reignite the flames of interest in me. As the late April date of the album’s release drew closer, early positive buzz was building, almost to heights that I thought would be impossible for the band to meet, particularly given my spotty history with the group’s catalog. My skepticism was unfounded though, because this time around Krallice the band is even better than Krallice the idea.
“Diotima” is the most purposeful record that Krallice has ever made. As noted earlier, the band’s immense technical skills have come off as wankery in the past, but no longer. When the band does show off its abilities it is in the service of a larger whole, and not just to showcase individual members’ chops. As a result the group has never sounded as emotive or as intense as they do here. This is black metal exploded to cinematic heights and it is deliriously glorious.
Take “The Clearing," after tearing through six minutes of brutal ascension, the track starts to break down into a martial rhythm pattern that most bands would choose to end on, but not Krallice, with Krallice the battle has only reached its half-way point, and what goes up must come down. The latter half of the song sounds like buildings toppling in on themselves and castles burning to the ground, even as the band turns in one of its most melodic chord progressions to date. It’s an insanely tight epic that never wears out its welcome and could probably play on into eternity without slack. It is also the first of four back-to-back tracks that break the twelve minute mark.
The album’s titular track is one of those mammoth numbers, and easily one of the most intense mid-tempo metal songs ever recorded. Foregoing blast beats for most of the song, the band instead focuses on crafting a seething atmosphere fronted by bassist/vocalist Nick McMaster. In the past guitarist Mick Barr’s black metal banshee screech has tracked most Krallice numbers, but “Diotima” features McMaster’s death growl to greater effect. The end result is a more muscular sound, and on tracks like “Diotima” his vocal contributions are downright devastating.
It isn’t just McMaster’s vocals that add a tougher feel to “Diotima,” the band’s jettison of extraneous individual instrumentation in exchange for a more unified and cohesive approach makes for a deeper and darker record, as on the face-melting “Litany or Regrets.” If anyone doubted these guys' authenticity, one listen to the crushingly brutal “Litany” will set them straight once and for all. The track’s concussive blast beat sucks the air right out of the song, making for a relentlessly heavy listen. It’s like listening to the nastiest and most degraded Paysage D’Hiver tape ever made, where everything is in the red and completely disorienting, except it’s way heavier than any of Paysage D’Hiver’s experiments in black metal.
With "Diotima" Krallice have not only made up for past transgressions, but they have established themselves as one of the elite among the current metal horde, and not just for black metal, but metal in general. Being one of the few groups that truly transcends metal's many subgenres by incorporating elements of thrash, death and grindcore into their particular brand of experimental black metal, Krallice have created something that should appeal to fans of all things heavy. Furthermore, their willingness to disregard boundaries while crafting such an intensely visceral record, easily makes "Diotima" a one of the best metal albums of the year, as well as one of the top albums of the year in general.
"The Clearing"
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