Independent
Krallice is the type of band that has albums streaming on Stereogum and NPR which to some disqualifies them from carrying any metal aspirations. I mean shit Pitchfork gave this album an 8.2 rating — how un-metal is that? But outside of the death-to-false-metal paradigm Krallice and their ilk — we’re talking about the art-school kids in Liturgy and the crust-hippies in Wolves in the Throne Room here — have been the missing link between Vice black metal documentaries and well real-deal black metal. It’s stuff that’s reviled by genre purists but near-uniformly embraced by Ira Glass worshippers. Which means two things: First this new American metal — hipster metal as it’s been christened — is appreciable to non-metal audiences. Secondly it drifts far enough from convention that even dark-wave pretenders (cough Cold Cave fans) dig this shit. It occupies undoubtedly a new territory for the genre.
Critics might argue that Krallice’s cohorts succeeded for the wrong reasons: Their supporters don’t like metal they’d say they like old English fonts and drawing Liturgy’s inverted crosses on their binders (plus that logo was stolen from Void guys). Such criticisms though ignore the appreciable elements of albums like Years Past Matter . Here in six tracks ranging between “IIIIIIII” to “IIIIIIIIIIII” Krallice display a remarkable dynamism: Four songs exceed the 10-minute mark but hardly feel laboured alternating between dissonant shredding placid feedback-driven soundscapes exuberantly melodic tremolo picking atmospheric vocals drum-shrapnel explosions and yes doom-bringing (or spleen-shattering or kidney-crushing or whatever) riffage. And dang is it ever dense with Krallice attacking in layered waves — it is at times overwhelming when listened through headphones.
Those are the reasons metal fans might dig Years Past . But it’s not the reason Slate cares about Krallice. Rather post-metal fans could find scraps of Pelican’s repetitive towering riffage here; post-rock (or Alcest) supporters could marvel at Krallice’s fluid shimmering songwriting; Syracuse-bred ex-hardcore kids might just dig their T-shirts. Which might make Krallice false metal perhaps but it doesn’t make Years Past any less rewarding. Or intense.
<a href="http://krallice.bandcamp.com/album/years-past-matter" mce_href="http://krallice.bandcamp.com/album/years-past-matter">Years Past Matter by Krallice</a>
