It Just Gets Faster

The band Krangs are a new band in the metal scene. They hail from Rome, Italy and they sound like they’re highly influenced by American thrash metal/crossover bands. The debut EP by Krangs is an explosive one and it's pretty obvious when you look at the artwork for the EP. The illustration of the amplifier is exploding. Oh and the title of the album is somewhat accurate. The songs on here start fast and then get faster as they progress. The only exception is Something’s Wrong. It actually does slow down a bit, but it’s mid-paced. It’s also the longest song found on the EP, it’s almost 3 minutes long. Then there’s one song that’s fast all the time. The fastest song on here is easily We Hate This Song. It is only 44 seconds and it has funny lyrics.

This EP has excellent guitars, drums, vocals and bass. This EP features some funny lyrics, especially with the songs Retarded and We Hate This Song. I dig bands with a sense of humor. I love the fact that the bass is not completely drowned out. The tone of the bass has a fat and rich sound. It’s not too loud, but it gets a bit loud on BxExExRx and Technocracy. The bassist really showcases his bass skills on Technocracy. There are times where the other instruments do overpower the bass, but that’s kind of expected.

All of the guitar riffs on this EP are fast and furious, especially on Something’s Wrong, Retarded and We Hate This Song. The guitarists don’t do anything technical or groundbreaking. They do throw in some nice sounding pinch harmonics. They perform straight forward fast thrash metal/crossover guitar riffs. The guitarists don’t do too much guitar solos and that’s too bad. The guitar solos are short and not noteworthy at all. How about the drumming? The drumming is quite damn good. The drummer goes hard and he’s fast as hell. He shines on Against Reality, Retarded and (Fuck) White Priority. He does some pretty good fills in there. He has great sounding cymbals.

The lead vocalist shouts on all of the songs, it’s pretty much expected from a modern thrash metal/crossover band. He shouts fast as well, he has a ton of energy. Who does he sound like? I don’t know who he sounds like and that’s a good thing. He sounds original to me, it’s nice to know he’s not trying to sound like Zetro or some other known thrash metal vocalist. Some of the songs do feature gang vocals, but they only pop up from time to time. At times, I cannot decipher the vocals. That’s no problem, I like the vocals and there’s nothing bad about them. There’s times where you’re able to decipher what the vocalist is shouting.

The one song that really caught my attention was HxBxOxMxBx. The vocalist shouts “one more beer” in this song. It’s your standard thrash metal/crossover affair, but then it has an interesting ending. It sounds like old Italian music playing and it seems like a drunk guy singing along to it. That was unexpected and I thought it was oddly cool. It fits perfectly with the song. Some listeners may think it’s bizarre and crazy. I didn’t think it was bizarre and crazy.

Krangs has a lot of potential. I hope they stick around for a long time and they make a full-length album in 2021. I’ll most definitely buy it too! For now, we have this EP that clocks in at 14:47 and all of the songs are excellent. My only little complaint about this EP is that it should have had a couple of more songs. That’s pretty much it. If it did have a couple of more songs, it’d be easily a 99% or 100%. I like Krangs a lot, I truly hope they last a long time.