Krallice - Scour Hour CD

Before I take the too long path of attempting to contextualise Krallice to the uninitiated I would like to  state that ‘Scour Order’ is a record with the ability to transport, escape, modify my mental state like no other album so far this year. It’s an immense, engulfing album and to these ears feels like a triumph of human creative potential! 

Krallice formed in Queens, New York circa 2008. It’s a time I associate with an expanded embrace of and participation in extreme metal, or more specifically black metal, to a let’s just say, a cosmopolitan audience. There’s a certain amount of dialogue and music from the period I came across (insert post-metal, IPA-metal, graphic design metal, true/false distinctions etc) that I’d like to forget. Thankfully Krallice sit above any cynical nonsense and have forged a path that in my musical mind map is situated as near to King Crimson in the 1980s, Gorguts from Obscura onwards and the eccentric world of prog/math/noise rock I’d associate with Load Records, Laddio Bolocko, Hella, The Psychic Paramount etc, as I would Black Metal. 

Of course Krallice evoke the transcendent atmosphere of Weakling and early Ulver albums, ‘Scour Order’ being a return to and dizzying expansion upon this territory, but I have a feeling the things that make me enjoy Krallice so much might frustrate proper black metal fanatics. 

This (and most) of their records have a very lively, almost jazz-y band-in-a-room feel, where the collaborative unit dynamic and indispensability of each member feels at odds with the individual-in-solitude black metal trope. Love it or hate it, Krallice are unique and relentlessly dedicated. I personally love it and reckon ‘Scour Order’ is the perfect in to their admirable discography! – Nic