Review Summary: Get rid of the overabundance of tremolo riffs and I might consider this trvv bm.
In my humble metal opinion, Mick Barr and Colin Marston can do no wrong when it comes to schooling you at your guitar. To give you a pedigree as to where these two key Krallice members come from, both guitar virtuosos histories stem from New York avant-garde metal bands (Marston from Behold…the Arctopus/ Dysrhythmia and Barr from Orthrelm/ Ocrilim). As for Krallice, the band has seen its fair share of praise from critics and fans with their self-titled and
Dimensional Bleedthrough releases. On the flip side of the coin, the extremely nit-pick detail the band uses to construct their mini-epics has come with criticism too, often being compared to as nothing more than free-wheeling guitar doodlers who run entire songs along a non-linear path of A.D.D. riff meltdowns. Let’s face it, I doubt Krallice will ever cave to the likes of people who enjoy a standard measure to their riffage and tremolo guitar lines and
Diotima is indeed just a natural extension to their two predecessor albums (Haters, this is your cue to stop reading). In fact,
Diotima is probably going to push the boundaries further apart that consist of lovers like myself and haters on Sputnikmusic (zing!).
Upping the need to balance song structures with schizophrenic noodling once again, Krallice have indeed created a marvelling display of how to do experimental black metal. Fans of
Krallice and
Dimensional Bleedthrough will be pleasantly surprised at how Krallice have stepped up tremendously as actual songwriters and musicians who take full control of their decimating instrumental surges. Following closely to the same template laid out on their self-titled (2008), Krallice have tensed up on all fronts allowing for more trance-inducing moments that simply hold tight to single notes of droning bliss. However, stepping into this thinking that Krallice’s mastery of wanky tremolo lines have left them, you will be gravely mistaken. Even though the wank doesn’t dominate a majority of the album, they rather fell more thought-out and harmonized to the idea of where the song is going; not purposefully trying to lead the song in an awkward direction. This still doesn’t excuse the fact that the wanky tremolo lines don’t spring forth from nowhere, they’re just less prevalent. Remember those cyclical patterns from
Krallice’s album ender ‘Forgiveness in Rot’? They simply litter this album in every nook and cranny. Given more spins over time, they will begin to pop out at the listener more-so, creating bridges of psychedelic haven to those who enjoy the pleasure of being taken on a musical journey instead of being confined within the depths of predictable song-writing. Another trait that has been running through Krallice’s discography that I believe they’ve perfected on
Diotima is their love for old school, lo-fi, trebly black metal. Pop on “Litany of Regrets” for a rather bouncy production standard that could have easily been lifted off an early 90s black metal record – except Krallice tips their hat at this rather than a simple mimic.
Other than comparing
Diotima to their previous two albums,
Diotima is a natural extension from where Krallice left off; tighter song-writing and more focus to harmonizing their tremolo riffing free-for-alls into a more cohesive song structure. Let the haters be warned; Dweedly-Dee, Dweedly-Doo is not to be scorned.
