KRALLICE – New album

Krallice (US) is back with an atmospheric wormhole of an album this year. Many of you will scratch your head, saying "did they put an album out last year?" and you’re right: Its just one year after the Diotima album from 2011. But these guys seem to have found the fountain of swirling blackened metal. Another album is out late August 2012, and it’s called Years Past Matter.

To my best knowledge, the lineup still consists of Mick Barr (guitars, space/forrest screams), Nicolas McMaster (bass), Colin Marston (guitars), and Lev Weinstein (drums).  Situated in NYC, I guess it would be at least geographically dubious to label Krallice forrest/pagan black metal, like, say, Wolves In The Throne Room and other bands camping out in forest while blasting like maniacs. But I cannot resist pointing to the common denominators of this wave of progressive, nature-oriented US black/grey metal – with the long songs with a lot of nuances hiding out in every riff and transitions between. The floating structures, the sharp echoes of high-note guitars. Shrieking vocals. Spike-free artwork. Rather few inverted crosses.

The song previewed on the Internet from the new album called IIIIIIIIII certainly suggests that the Years Past Matter album will continue the majestic feel of Diotima. Also, it will hopefully bring more guts and determination of the fans demanding these guys to get their atmospheric asses over to Europe to play metal again soon.

I got a hold of Mick Barr and Colin Marston to hear some of their thoughts on the upcoming album and plan to play live anytime soon.

Hi, guys, thanks for taking the time for this! A new album out, congrats on that. Are you satisfied with how it all turned out?

Mick Barr: We are satisfied with the final recording. It was a good condensed period of work for us. 

The IIIIIIIII song is more than promising in regards of the new album. It seems a tad more focused sound wise in terms of the sound being enclosed and not that ‘roomy’. Have you stuck with the formula or changed it up?

Mick Barr: We stuck with the formula of putting our guitarist Colin Marston in charge of the recording, mixing and mastering. He may have done some different tricks this time. You’d have to ask him.    

Colin Marston: this record was recorded very similarly to the last one. we all recorded live together standing in the same room to 2" tape.

I curious to hear about the production part as your sound is very recognizable and mezmerizing. How you go forth go crate that density in the songs?

Colin Marston: This time we isolated the amps instead of putting them in the same room as us and the drums and turned them up louder. We used 1 different bass amp (out of the 2) this time and went for a less fuzzy, clearer bass sound. For mastering I concentrated a lot more on the low-end this time, making sure it sounded rich and heavy. It’s probably the least compressed master out of all the records too. Quiet mastering forever!!!

Given the long songs and layers and layers of nuances, what is the recording process like?

Colin Marston: Every song except the interlude was pretty much a 1st take done in one day. We’ve never done too much fixing/editing/punching, but this record definitely has the least of that. Smoothest recording session I’ve ever done! McMaster composed the short interlude entirely and we recorded it a few weeks after the main recording since mick felt it was necessary for the album’s pacing.

Could you share some of the choices the band made when producing and mastering the new album?

Colin Marston: We doubled all the guitar parts (as we’ve done on every album except when doing covers), and added some extra guitars, keyboards and then vocals. We also used a different kick drum (acrylic instead of wood)  and 2 toms instead of 3. There are still room-mics for the drums, overdub guitars, and vocals, but in general I mixed this album to be drier than the previous ones. The 1st draft mix was almost roomless, but dry drums always end up sounding awkward and quiet to me. I used only one amp for the guitars this time (instead of a mixture of cleaner and more distorted amps) and only dynamic mics–no ribbons of condensers. So the guitar sound might come off a bit more traditional than in the past.

Any plans of a tour soon? Area we going to see you guys on the road in the near future?

Mick Barr: No tours are planned nor are they being planned. We would love to come play in Norway, probably more than anywhere else. But we do not actively seek out opportunities to tour. Hopefully something will materialize in the near future and we can finally make it over to Europe.    

Final words or greetings to people that read this?

Mick Barr: Thanks for the reading and the listening, and greetings to all Norwegian musicians.  

Years Past Matter is out 25^th of August

http://www.myspace.com/krallice