The debut by avant black metal supergroup
Krallice (which features guitarists
Mick Barr of
Orthrelm,
Octis, and
the Flying Luttenbachers alongside Colin Marston of Behold…the Arctopus,
Dysrhythmia, and
Gorguts) is a six-song, hourlong marathon of blastbeats, intertwining guitar lines, and hoarse screams. It's also an album full of high-speed shifts and sudden left turns, as guitar solos erupt out of the riff-storm like a demonic dolphin leaping from a lake of lava, or the band suddenly halts what had seemed like frantic, headlong momentum to begin playing an entirely different riff. The trance-inducing effects of later albums are largely absent here; on this disc,
Krallice are all about displays of virtuosity that recall
John McLaughlin more than
Mayhem. They're operating more in line with conventional metal rules than they would on any subsequent release, but it's still every bit as thrilling as
Dimensional Bleedthrough or
Diotima. ~ Phil Freeman