For more than a decade, the New York band Krallice have combined forbidding, atmospheric black metal fury with experimental math-rock complexity. Most of the time, they’ve been wildly prolific. In 2017, for instance, Krallice released two albums — Go Be Forgotten on their own, and Loüm in collaboration with Neurosis member Dave Edwardson. But they’ve been relatively quiet ever since 2017. So it was cool to see that today, for Bandcamp Friday, Krallice have come out with a new full-length called Mass Cathexis.
Krallice had said that there would be a new album out in 2020, and they released the song “The Wheel,” which appears on the LP, back in March. (Also, earlier this week, frontman Mick Barr took part in an all-star Black Sabbath cover.) But the new album still arrives without any announcement — 42 minutes of frantic and complex new Krallice jams.
On first listen, Mass Cathexis is even more fractured and experimental than most Krallice records. Even when the band is in full thunder mode, there’s some busy, complex discordance going on somewhere on the track. Dave Edwardson is now credited as being a full-on member of the band; he does vocals on the album. Stream it below.
Mass Cathexis is out now at Bandcamp; an LP version is coming soon on Gilead Media.
