Review: Krallice – Inorganic Rites

Style: progressive black metal, progressive electronica (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Tangerine Dream, Enslaved, Gorguts, Klaus Schulze
Country: United States-NY
Release date: 5 July 2024

A couple weeks ago I received a shirt in the mail, and while it wasn’t Krallice per se, the band was represented. Sadly, metal maestro Colin Marston’s production studio, Menegroth, has been forced to move locations, so Imperial Triumphant produced a charity shirt to help refund the studio with scores of bands Marston has produced. He’s worked with many of the best bands in metal. And the most prolific of his own projects, Krallice, have arrived with their fourteenth album, Inorganic Rites, just weeks after Menegroth has relocated. Of course, Marston’s hands are synonymous with excellent production, so that’s a given on Inorganic Rites, but how do the avant-black legends fare beyond the deft touch of a currently nomadic studio?

The performances, which Marston so meticulously balances in the mix, are dynamic and full of surprises, like Lev Weinstein’s drums, deftly spanning understated progressive electronica backing to intricate, technical black metal. If you need proof of his ability, listen to the start of “Here Forever” which is chaotic and overwhelming, yet Weinstein’s drums provide some structure to the crazed Mario Galaxy boss music with his fills and steady blast beats. Defining the album, however, are Marston’s various synthesizers and Mick Barr’s bass which together create an otherworldly atmosphere. Clearly inspired by Berlin school progressive electronica to my ear (Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze in particular), Marston’s synthesizers provide a retro-futurist atmosphere thick enough to suffocate in, eerie alien synths wonderfully delectable in range of tones and usages completely forged out of a 70s sci-fi aesthetic. They provide both atmosphere and melody—I’ve never heard synths like at 1:40 in “Faustian Bargain” or the creepy intro to “Flatlines Encircled Residue”—and they’re essential to what the modern iterations of Krallice are at their core. Similarly, Barr’s bass with its particularly phat tone easily fit in with the synths for extended progressive electronica sections, but it’s also the driving force behind the metal sections, leading all of the most memorable riffs such as from 5:00 onward in “Parataxis.” Few instrumental duos achieve the level of cohesion and accordance as Barr and Marston here.

Don’t let the title Inorganic Rites fool you because the album moves with a primordial life of its own, the songwriting self-propelling in apparently random directions like an amoeba, oozing forward like a virile yet completely reactionary and unpredictable force exploring its alien environment. Long winded treks through science fiction mountains and valleys often suddenly are fraught with short bursts of metallic energy suffused predominantly by Weinstein; Krallice are a primitive being in an oft violent world. The natural yet unpredictable flow of songwriting makes Inorganic Rites easy listening despite its hour-long length. However, occasionally I wish the extended electronica sections were cut short by the raucous, galactic black metal sooner—see “Universe Ancestral Talisman” which exclusively stays as progressive electronica throughout its lengthy runtime. These progressive electronica moments unfurl with the same verve as the other sections and would undoubtedly be timeless classics if they’d been released in the 70s, but Krallice’s black metal background is so incredibly strong that I crave more of it. 

At odds with its retro-futurist aesthetic, Inorganic Rites feels wildly forward-thinking for metal with its composition so influenced by a more natural progressive electronica- or ambient-infused approach. And it all lifts the black metal into a new echelon of space-y brilliance instead of one of the hundred other synth-y atmoblack bands. Having to move the legendary location of Menegroth is but a small hurdle because wherever Marston ends up will shape the future of metal.

Recommended tracks: Parataxis, Here Forever, Hinderer
You may also like: Midnight Odyssey, Thantifaxath, Esoctrilihum, Nightmarer, SkyThala, Bakt
Final verdict: 8/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page

Krallice is:
Nicholas McMaster: guitar, vocals
Colin Marston: synthesizers, guitar, vocals
Mick Barr: bass, guitar, vocals
Lev Weinstein: drums