Review Summary: The future is now, and so is the past.
A year ago
Porous Resonance Abyss curled Krallice’s storied discography towards a more synth-led vision of artsy blackened dad rock. A move, mind you, that actually landed welcome for the band’s fans who have let Krallice co-pilot every genre modulation this side of black metal. As if heralding an early Christmas present, Marston, Barr and co released their second album of the year,
Mass Cathexis 2 - The Kinetic Infinite and continued to tread everywhere a new Krallice would venture—whether we expected it or not. Moving forwards, it was unclear what Krallice would emerge under the guise of
Inorganic Rites given that the group’s long-time studio needed relocating. The result? Well it’s clear that Marston’s production talents outweigh any unfamiliarity with the locale. More importantly,
Inorganic Rites lives up to the musical standards set by the releases before them and indulges in combining the best of
Demonic Wealth,
Crystalline Exhaustion, the instrumental
Porous Resonance Abyss and understandably,
The Kinetic Infinite. Put simply,
Inorganic Rites is one hell of a record, unsurprisingly good and full of enough twists and turns to satiate even the most avid investigators of the Marston Cinematic Universe.
An approachable spray of black metal blisters into the album opener, “Parataxis”. Synth chords lay the foundation for a crescendo of building drums and eventual jarring melodies. It’s Krallice at its most corrosive and abstract, while holding firmly onto the avant-garde metal-ism that made Krallice the interesting talking point it is today.
Inorganic Rites leans further into its spacey avant themes with “Flatlines Encircled Residue”, which feels eerily claustrophobic. Marston’s synth-play extends and stretches the group’s newfound soundscapes with ease. It’s because of this, the track’s closing sections really hit home, and I’ll be damned if these aren’t some of Krallice’s more accessible and tasteful riffs since their inception.
Shorter blasts like the bee-bop’d “Irdischen” sound out of this world. Interplay between finding something out there in the void and the icy cool realities of a lifeless space. Unfortunately, some of the synths shine too brightly over some seriously interesting musical phrases. The track is over all too quickly and could do with some fleshing out. Similarly, “Here Forever” has a host of ideas (especially in the track’s first half), but they become lost in their own scramble. Had this whirlwind of a track seen a similar runtime like “Flatlines Encircled Residue” or “Universe Ancestral Talisman” it may have produced one of the group’s more essential compositions. That’s not to say that these tracks aren’t worth the time they’ve been given—rather they feel like they simply could be
more had they been a little more
forever. If there was a true misstep to the
Inorganic Rites formula, it’s perhaps the wandering, introspective “Feel Time Begin”. While not offensive, there’s just not a lot going on here worthy of note past the atmosphere created by the usual synth progression. It’s too minimalistic and its build doesn’t really…build.
Inorganic Rites would take on a better visage had this song been omitted from the playlist.
Of the album’s shorter passages, “Faustian Bargain” is a highlight. Haunting melodies lie above some jarringly good percussive chops all the while electronica mellows out the abrupt black metal edges while being the perfect dichotomy to the transcendental and cinematically spacey “Universe Ancestral Talisman”. Krallice showcases that they can combine their influences and musical eras to create something forward thinking, testing the boundaries of even their varied, occasionally kaleidoscopic brand of black metal. Sure, some of the synth work here sounds like it was born from a 70s sci-fi program—but a lot of
Inorganic Rites’climes are backed by a
demonic wealth of experience, songwriting awareness and effortless experimentation without losing sight of Krallice’s bigger picture. “Fatestorm Sanctuary” is massive—both in runtime and in sound, but there’s not a lot here that hasn’t been said that hasn’t been said in describing Krallice’s modern shifting of aesthetic.
At the end of the day
Inorganic Rites is likely just another chapter, a page to be turned over or in the least, revisited because it so very deserves more attention. As far as Krallice moves into the future they really know how to hold onto the core of what makes their music so interesting, so appealing. Krallice continues to reshape their sound into coherent and accessible extreme music.
Inorganic Rites is yet another essential Krallice album.
