Once upon a time I used to be into the more innovative sound of black metal coming out of the hipster cesspool that is Brooklyn. Then it became less sonically groundbreaking and more tedious. Krallice was one such band though they got tangled up in the math of their music and it lost a great deal of feeling amid this. They have stepped back and recaptured some of the earlier wonderment by not being as progressive and focusing on songwriting. So if you like the dazzle of what they were doing more than the black metal side then you might not be as pleased as I am. The album opens with a ten-minute song, but it does not sprawl out in a manner where it feels like ten minutes.
"Telos" is more compact. The more overbearing presence of the vocals in mix give it more of a death metal feel. The guitar off set it somewhat and add dissonance to take away the more single-minded aggressive dynamic of death metal. "Heath Swill" is a more effective song. If finds the snarl of the vocals mixed further back into the the ever-shifting guitar, which is progressive in how it is ever changing but also maintains a shadowy vibe. "Arclights" might have too much going on despite the improvement in the overall sound with a measure of atmosphere to counterbalance things. There is just wandering and less focus on the song.
The drumming on this album is top notch. The guitar does not revert to shred soloing, so there are some tasteful elements in play. "Dismal Entity" is more focused, but it is also more angular. The vocals do not feel as much like an afterthought. The bass also plays more of a role than it typically does in black metal. The fourteen-minute closing track could have had the four-minute synth intro trimmed down. The undercurrent of bass and drums that glides in is pretty cool. It kind of sweeps you along. I will give this one a 9, which is an improvement from where they have been in the past.
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