Location: New York
Country: USA
Genre: Black metal
Full length: Scour Order
Format: CD, LP, digital
Label: Profound Lore Records
Release date: September 18th 2026
It’s taken a significant amount of time since their inception in 2007, but Krallice has gone from playing black metal to playing long, beguiling compositions of progressive-experimental black metal, with compact harmonics reeking of peculiarities.
Starting as a two-guitar partnership and expanding into a full band over time, they shifted toward perfecting their abstruse perception of the genre. Their long succession of full-length albums shows the extensive time they dedicated to practice, experimentation and trial-and-error, always stepping back and focusing more on composing and recording rather than touring.
What ensues from this on “Scour Order” is partially comparable to atmospheric/avant garde bands like Blut Aus Nord and The Ruins of Beverast, only thriving on complicated bass lines and perplexing drum patterns as much as curious guitar harmonies and riffs; that is to say when guitars were required. With a traditional lineup sticking to basics, Krallice exhibit interaction that propels their professionalism toward standards of skillful art rock and acid jazz bands, all with the potency and unceasing vehemence of black metal bands.
For all this, nothing the band thought up is set in stone, and they’ve remained open to recording with different method. At one point Krallice switched from dual guitars to guitar and synth, deciding synths would better help remold and reshape themselves, and communicate with the complex bass and drum tracks, making their sound both dense and expansive. Some of the songs on past albums were even recorded without guitars as synths were more than sufficient to take center stage.
Borrowing occasionally from NWOBHM, sci-fi metal, and classic thrash, the band not only integrates but absorbs raw abrasiveness with intricate musicianship and odd time signatures, guiding the listener through turn after turn. “Agonal Shining” begins with a few moments of crunch before shifting to harmonies layered with a bizarre combination of rawness and electronic sounds, supported by thunderous drums that grow more intricate as the song slowly progresses into a progressive landscape.
Blast beats often break up their intensity mid-blast, transitioning into slower beats and time changes accompanied by tangled bass lines and (again) dual guitars. These layered combinations with guitars and caterwauled vocals become more pronounced and striking, regardless of how frequently a new rhythm shift ripples and floods from the previous shift. As the first track, it lays the foundation for everything we can expect from the following tracks.
These rhythm shifts include measures that add extra beats, creating space for the instruments to embellish as if offering afterthoughts to the statements they’re making. Sometimes they build a little more gradually; other times they shift abruptly, fade into somber atmosphere, or become more intense when needed. The volatile appeal of “Scour Order” lies in an unstable, uncertain changeability that’s kept uniform by its simplistic lo-fi production. It’s a dichotomy that sustains your interest in exploring the unknown with Krallice even as they blaze new trails through the unknown themselves. –Dave Wolff
Lineup:
Mick Barr: Guitar, vocals
Colin Marston: Guitar, vocals
Nicholas McMaster: Bass, vocals
Lev Weinstein: Drums
Track list:
1. Agonal Shining
2. Grievous Corrector
3. Kill The Guardian
4. Unceasing Path
5. Living Useless Ritual
6. Indecipherable Divinities
7. Her Green Arms
8. Scour Order
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