Krvl awakes.
Created into the forest of Kravaal in Belgium, the anonymous band offers us Kravaal, its first album, anchored into dark influences, in 2022.
With Calimero, a very dissonant and weighing song, the band opens us the gates of its dark atmosphere. The band is of course anchored into Black Metal, but also into a more hooking slowness, borrowing from Post-Hardcore or Sludge. The unfurling wave comes with the avalanche of blast, allowing heady elements to assault us just like on Het gezang der nachtekraaien (“The song of the ravens”, ed.), a very dark but melodic composition. A short clean-sounding break offers a moment of dissonant respite before going back to oppression and saturation, while coupling slowness to its influences before calling Black Metal back, then Zoete ellende immediately mesmerizes us with its slowness which turns to burning fastness. I immediately feel dark and heady oppression, which drives us to Arme Zondaars and its weighing dissonance coupled to clean sonorities. Quietness will be short, then rage quickly comes back to the melting, giving birth to an ocean of violence which slows down to expose raw strength before Kravaal, the eponymous track and its Old School influences, which offer a break into straightforward strength. The song is quite continuous, creating some ambience into this one, then Het verraad closes the album with a weighing sound. Very focused on an airy Post-Metal, it offers some contrast between the seizing blackness and the airy harmonics which unveils a seizing alternance until the burdening final.
Krvl knows how to play with blackness and weighing sonorities. Kravaal melts heady melodies, raw rhythmics and intense vocal parts, creating an interesting universe.
85/100
