What is this? Avant-garde black metal? Strange Black Metal? That always seems to be the sixty-four thousand dollar question. My answer to that is, who gives a shit? It's good. But if you have to know, Krallice is a progressive metal band with a post-rock sensibility borrowing a strong tremolo picked black metal influence in the guitars plus some very complex drumming going incognito as blast beats from that genre. So nigh, this is NOT black metal but if any of that gives you qualms, it's your loss. If you're still hellbent on gleaning who this album sounds like, I'm gonna make this real simple for you: Put Electric Wizard vocals and that loom-large reverb in a blender with the tremolo riff precision and distortion level of Borknagar. Press the purée button for ten seconds. Then add a teaspoon of some Weakling look and feel and push stir for about fifteen seconds. Take the top off and pour into a chalice for some Krallice EP. Tasty? Maybe you should knock some of that goat cheese off you found from listening to all that Beherit first though. Just a suggestion. Speaking of cheese, at the expense of coming across as cheesy by mentioning his name in a metal album review, all I can say is, when it comes to the drumming, Emeril Lagrasse himself would say 'Bam!' if even he were to give this a try. Hey, if a culinary analogy is good enough for a fancy schmancy album like Montheist then it's good enough to be used for an also super textured album like Krallice too so let's kick it up a notch...
The way to describe this album is that it's busy. Very busy. It's going in every which direction but loose. It's going right. It's going left. It's going diagonal. So it's going but it's going tight unlike a Wonkavator. The advanced time changes and escalation harmonizing are what make the album sound so assiduous. And yes, it has atmosphere galore just not black metal atmosphere which is another reason why I refuse to call Krallice that but that doesn't mean it isn't interesting. Quite the contrary. The aura and scenery here is on par with something alive and pulsating. This is a band intent on creating an album that is the musical equivalent of a paradox that is structured chaos. That's where the black metal borrowings come in handy and with a purpose.
The bass. Not bad if I don't say so myself. It's vibrant and put to good use. I like that there is also a sense of independence but simultaneously serving a dual role in laying down an illusion of time. Again, it goes back to that structure paradox because the drums are doing the same exact thing. This exhibit of illusory function is another extremely clever bit to appreciate about this EP.
This is the type of band usually found signed to Southern Lord and I assumed as much at first but they are not. And don't even get me started on this whole "hipster" criticism of the album("..myehh. myehh..ist ficking heepsteh..eest nein krieg fa me") Once more: Krallice is set up to play progressive metal. Leave it alone!