Krallice "Mass Cathexis" Review

 

    What sort of year would it be if we didn't hear from the undisputed kings of modern US black metal? Looking back on a twelve year long catalog of releases, its hard to find a time when Krallice wasn't dominating the landscape of the avant-garde with their evolving brand of harmonically dense blackness.

    That said, I have a confession to make. Despite my reverence, I honestly haven't given that catalog much of a listen. I first encountered Krallice back in 2011 with the release of Diotima, an album I have returned to frequently over the past nine years. However I never found it in myself, for whatever reason, to look into either of their previous releases, a self-titled work and 2009's Dimensional Bleedthrough, nor did I continue to follow the band with their 2012 album Years Pat Matter. Back when I was running a metal show from SUNY Potsdam's radio broadcast 90.3 WAIH in 2015 I included the track "Wastes of Ocean" off of the newly released Ygg Huur in my playlist. That's been about the extent of my relationship with Krallice to this point. With the release of Mass Cathexis I took it on myself to listen to their entire discography front to back over the last few days. It's been quite a journey.

    The endeavor of listening to everything Krallice has had to offer since 2008 puts this new release into a very specific context for me. It is with great love that the community surrounding Krallice has split their discography into two "eras": Years Past Matter and its three progenitors, then Ygg Huur and its successors. A stylistic distinction is made between pre-2015 releases and the "modern" Krallice. Songs in the first era were often long, exhaustive tirades of harmonically rich, contrapuntal string work from guitarists Mick Barr and Colin Marston as well as bassist Nick McMaster, carried on a solid rhythmic foundation laid down by drummer Lev Weinstein. It wasn't uncommon in this time for tracks to exceed 10-minutes in length. The excessive runtime of these tracks made the band's output feel like oppressive master classes in motific development; never boring, overstaying their welcome with purpose. Later on, with an almost three-year break between Years and Ygg Huur, the band refined this propensity for counterpoint into a razor's edge take on the mathcore and noise inspired brand of progressive black metal on the rise at the time. With generally shorter runtimes, loads of rhythmic modulation, and a penchant for massive dissonant riffs punctuated by their well-fermented brand of guitar work, Krallice set about changing not only their sound but the landscape of modern black metal around them. In the time since Ygg Huur, Krallice have released similarly chaotic cutting edge albums alongside a few semi-return-to-form pieces, including the impenetrably angular collaboration with Neurosis' Dave Edwardson, Loüm. Which brings us to present, where Mass Cathexis poises itself to be the thesis statement of this second era.

    The best word I can use to describe Mass Cathexis is moody. Strangely enough, I don't feel I can say the same thing of other second era Krallice albums as much as I can for the first era. While releases like the self-titled and Diotima feel brimming with a sense of longing and of mystery, most releases within the past five years, while internally consistent, don't ever give me a specific 'vibe' the way Cathexis does. Moodiness in this sense could easily be attributed to the heavy inclusion of ambient synths as track bookends (or central elements as in the case of "Aspherence"). But that doesn't really do the consistent feeling of this album justice. Even from the crushing opening riff of "Feed on the Blood of Rats", that seemingly rises from initial seconds of ambiance and bursts open all possible expectations with its blisteringly fast arpeggios, the statement this album makes is concise and tense. Each track feels cut from the same cloth and inexorable from its brethren; words forming one cohesive sentence. Contributing to this sense of uniformity is the lack of any song I'd dare call lengthy. Some end as abruptly as they begin, letting the next track take over without so much as a breath of air between. The best example of this comes between "Set" and "The Wheel", where the former ends on several different dual lead guitar sections, giving way to one last drum fill that just dissipates into the latter, using similar leads as a function of its opening riff. A similar phenomenon happens between "Aspherence" and "The Myth", though this transition utilizes layers of synth pads to take us from the former's mystifying clean guitar outro into the latter's massive, triumphant motif. The consistent approach to interlocking songs, to brevity, and to balancing chaotic riffs with intriguing, beautiful harmonies keeps Cathexis fresh front to back while never losing a shred of its identity. It is as impenetrable as Loüm while being as laden with wonder as Diotima.

    In many ways Krallice takes cues from their contemporaries without feeling as if they are simply riffing on old ideas. I first noticed this on the title track, which feels like it could fit neatly on Gorguts' From Wisdom to Hate. Without feeling out of place this track takes center stage with by far the most brutal riff on the album, alternating chugs and diminished leads with a deftness that rivals the most adept death metal kings. Immediately following this track, "The Form" cuts through the chaos with its airy bass lines that feel ripped straight from Kayo Dot's Coffins on Io. Krallice show a remarkable ability to take what they need from others and make it their own over and over again. The adaptability on display here is nothing short of fascinating to behold. Weinstein and McMaster are given all the room possible to craft rhythmic Rubiks cubes front to back while Marston and Barr take turns delivering seminars on every form of metal guitar ever committed to record. In just shy of 40 minutes nothing is left on the table. With "All and Nothing", Krallice slowly close the door, whispering softly into a stunned room of onlookers that they released this monster on a whim without fanfare.

    With everything on display here, I think the gist of the thesis that is Cathexis is a merging of stylistic approaches. There are no long-winded epics cropping up this time around, but rather a distillation of the feelings put to record in Krallice's first outings. I don't mean to detract from the work these guys have been doing since Years, but as I've said Cathexis stands apart from its contemporaries. It feels enormous, in much the same way Dimensional Bleedthrough does. But it does so without resorting to near-masturbatory songwriting - which I shouldn't talk shit about because I enjoy writing and listening to ridiculously long songs. Cathexis gets to its point in such a short amount of time. I never feel like I'm anticipating the neverending intensity of "Litany of Regrets" or the absolutely monumental feat that is "Monolith of Possession". Everything that I feel about those songs is on full display, always, from the moment "Feeding" starts to the last wistful breaths of "All and Nothing". I can't understate such an accomplishment, because what took me almost ten years to appreciate about Krallice's previous work took me less than a day to appreciate out of this one release.

    We can only hope they continue to stun, though something in my gut tells me when next we see them Krallice may have evolved into some new form, having mastered what identity they have already forged for themselves.

-Dalton