KRALLICE IN WONDERLAND: VINCE’S POST-SCION FEST WRAPUP
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 at 3:12pm by Vince Neilstein
Axl did such a fine job recapping this past weekend’s Scion Rock Fest that there’s no need for me to reiterate what he already wrote. But even your MS editors part ways once in a while, and while Axl watched the end of Pig Destroyer’s shortened set I headed inside to catch Krallice purely for the curiosity factor. What I saw completely blew my mind and was easily the highlight of the day for me.
Krallice’s intense psychedelic black metal had me captivated with every turn after twisted turn their music took. Most of the time there weren’t any vocals, which placed the emphasis squarely on the epic, monstrous, riveting compositions. All I could do was stand and watch as each moment was more grand than the last. Anton OyVey, who came to watch with me, was in full agreement; there were other bands to see but we couldn’t help but stay until the last note was played. Krallice are a band with zero pretention and no corpsepaint; just killer, awesome black metal. And fucking INTENSE… that’s the word I keep coming back to. The band played the shit out of their instruments with a passionate fervor you just don’t see in most bands.
Unfortunately their recordings, like much black metal, don’t do the band justice. There’s a track called “Wretched Wisdom” on their MySpace which sounds alright, but really nothing like they sounded live. Hopefully next time around they’ll be able to get it together in the recording studio and get over the notion that black metal is supposed to sound like shit. The nuance in their live set was unbelievable, and it needs to be captured on tape. Regardless, Krallice made a fan out of me on Saturday and I’ll surely be out to see them next time they play live in New York.
-VN
I missed this band, I think I was catching Skeletonwitch at the time. I did download a few of their mp3’s though and they’re just ok. But of course, going back to what you just said, it probably doesn’t do them justice.
On a completely unrelated note, am I the only one ever who doesn’t like Neurosis?
@matt – i also consider myself an oddity, in that im not really into neurosis either. it’s weird though because i’m a total beardo and love shit like Isis and whatnot, but neurosis has never really grabbed me.
also, completely agree with the krallice recordings thing. when i first started hearing about them i checked out their myspace and listended to some stuff and wasn’t really that into it, but then i checked out some live videos and was way more interested. watching them play the songs definitely adds something.
Wow, I thought the album had an amazing sound to it, so hearing what you say about the live show makes me that much more excited to see them live. I love this band.
I thought I had seen some sweet dual guitar interplay with the Baroness set a little while before, but Krallice really put them to shame. ‘Mind-blowing’ is about right – ‘magical’ might actually be a better description. Definitely the best set I saw all day. And I’m so happy to hear someone else say that the Neurosis set underwhelmed them. I’ve seen both Isis and Cult of Luna live and thought they did this style WAY better in the live environment (especially Isis). Oh well, at least I got to check Neurosis off the ol’ checklist of bands I’ve seen. My real regret is not being able to do the same with Wolves in the Throne Room.
The album is great, Molec Codices is a masterpiece.
after hearing their album over and over last year this band was one of the reasons i almost drove 8 hours to this fest and now i’m pissed that i didnt…:(
They slayed. One of the very best of the day, for sure!f Maybe even better than Wolves, who followed them.
saw them at Silent Barn in BK early last year and it was incredible. i can listen to their album repeatedly and i’m sure it’s of much higher than anything posted on myspace.
My boys definitely did me proud that day. Glad you were so stoked on them, man!