Krieg

The Isolationist

Written by: EW on 16/01/2011 23:27:21

One of the most heralded lights of the American black metal scene, Krieg have in my mind a sound more defining of that vast nations influence to black metal than any other of their competitors. On sixth album "The Isolationist" the raw and dissonant guitar tone, combined with Imperial's pained, screamed howl and oppressive yet natural drum sound is one that now comes with 'Made in the US' on the underside in much the same way as Sweden and Norway have spewed their product over much of the unforgiving world.

Having worked closely with Blake Judd in Twilight and more importantly in Nachtmystium the proximity between the two is no surprise. Perhaps more a shared influencing of each other would best surmise the pair's musical influence over each other's acts as Krieg's considerably more nihilistic and despairing take on BM does away with the proggier tendencies that have made such an impressive in Nachtmystium's recent work. The feel may be set early on for 55 minutes of insanity driven black metal nausea (that is a complimentary reflection, by the way) with "No Future" and "All Paths To God" being decent songs but following through "Depakote" and to "Remission" and "Dead Windows" at the album's termination it's journey not too satisfactorily loses it's impetus with little a view to ever returning. Commitment to the cause is never in doubt with a man like Imperial at the helm for his track record speaks for itself, but a limited scope and ambition for what the act can truly achieve systematically reins the enjoyability factor of a record like "The Isolationist" in to outside the gates of a ‘great’ record.

Fans with feet already well entrenched within the stenched walls of such urbanely-derived decrepit black metal will rightly find moments to enjoy, as I do myself, but at 55 minutes and with limited ground in which to expand it's purpose “The Isolationist” would have been better served by a trimming of its less calculated crusty extremities.

6

Download: All Paths To God, Ambergeist, No Future
For The Fans Of: Nachtmystium, Clandestine Blaze
Listen: Myspace

Release date: 01.11.2010
Candlelight Records

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