Last summer a friend and I organized an intentionally below-the-radar show with New York’s Krallice, the Seattle duo Inquisition and the McKinney, Texas quartet Dagon: It was supposed to offer a varied look at American black metal in a raw warehouse environment that we felt suited the music. The show happened a week and a half after Krallice released their self-titled debut (an album that went on to become one of my favorites in 2008). I bring up that night because I’ve seen a ton of shows since then, but nothing’s come close to the chills I had realizing my hometown had birthed such an intensely epic black metal band, a group that echoed the best elements of Weakling’s Dead As Dreams and the most stately Burzum, marrying it to a mathy hardcore intensity. (When you add Liturgy, Malkuth, and Agrath, you have yourself an exciting local “scene.”) As the cover art suggests, Krallice’s second album isn’t as dark as its predecessor, but it taps into something even more transcendent: See, for instance, the 11-minute opener/title track. Such fucking riffs.
Folks tend to focus on the fact that Mick Barr’s singing and playing guitar, but what you just heard is clearly a full-on mind-meld of four players: It just so happens that those other players include Behold…the Arctopus/Dysrhythmia/Gorguts multi-tasker Colin Marston, Bloody Panda‘s Lev Weinstein, and now full-time bassist/co-vocalist Nick McMaster. (Full disclosure: This weekend I’m putting on a show with a solo Mick Barr performance.)
Dimensional Bleedthrough is out 11/10 via Profound Lore.
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Great art. Great track. Color me excited
Yes…
How does this band qualify as black metal exactly? The vocals, kinda, but other than that… ?
It’s not orthodox black metal, no. The definition’s been expanded since the early ’90s. That’s part of what makes contemporary American black metal interesting to me — the best is often a weird hybrid of various influences, etc.
Killer track / art. The s/t album was definitely my favorite album of ’08. Thanks for posting this!
So glad to have some new Krallice to listen to. Thanks for posting this Brandon!
It’s a solid track. I hope there’s some material that doesn’t sound so much like melodic post rock and more like the progressive black stuff from their s/t. This sounds a bit like Ocrilim with vocals and drums.