Hollow Ground Destruction

Say one thing about Kratornas, say that they’re cult. It honestly doesn’t get truer than this. The production is at an all time low for music, making cell phone recording sound like something that’s advertised, but is too expensive for everyone but Metallica and Green Day to use. This sounds like it was recorded through two tubes connected by a string, with another set after that, and on the other end you have a guy holding up a broken recorder from the forties and trying to get all of it. Your first thought when you hear this is that it’s garbage. Admittedly, that’s a pretty rationale thought. At the same time, there’s something strangely appealing about this whole thing.

I’ve already mentioned the production, but I think I will again to truly drive the point home. It truly is the worst you’ll ever hear. Whenever the drums do a roll, everything else is utterly drowned out. The whole thing is drenched in ridiculous amounts of static that would make most noise bands blush and turn down the dial, and it’s about as cluttered and hard to make out as it gets. By every conceivable scale, this should be utter garbage. Yet, it’s somewhat enjoyable. It’s not easy listening music, but if you’re in the mood for audio punishment, this is about as blackened as it gets.

The thing is, beneath all the static and toms, the songwriting is actually great. The riffs are chunky as hell, and as fast paced as any I’ve ever heard. The guitar tone is actually great, or it would be if the distortion was cut into a fortieth of its present position. Still, the riffs are absolute juggernauts of destruction, and represent a great balance between black metal, grindcore and thrash. The bass is utterly inaudible. If you didn’t see that coming, something’s wrong here and you’re looking at the wrong genre of music.

The drumming is probably the high point of the album. It’s a machine, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard one put to better use than this one is, save for on Godflesh’s immortal debut (not to imply they’re similar in any way). I expected the drums to be nothing but blast beats, but that’s actually pretty damn far from the truth. The drumming is stunningly varied on this album, and makes frequent use of ride cymbals in completely awesome ways. That’s not to say that blasts are infrequent, though. The aforementioned tom rolls take out the whole sonic landscape in one hit – which isn’t a bad thing by any means, as they’re fucking awesome. As far as I’m concerned, this is what it’s like to be sitting in a trench, getting hit by an artillery barrage, and watching the guy next to you simply disintegrate as a shell hits him in the chest.

The vocals sound something like traditional black metal vocals coming out of a static filled radio channel…and then distorted. They’re positively twisted, and if this guy isn’t using two or three distortion pedals on them, I’m an underground legend for my ethereal falsetto and sensitive use of blast beats. Occasionally the shrieks are swapped out for reverb drenched growls that occupy the entire sonic space and sound pretty awesome.

Upon first listening to this, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was one endless procession of monotony, but after hearing it a few times you’ll realize that’s most certainly not the case. The riffs are actually quite varied, and transition with a fair degree of regularity. The drumming is constantly shifting from blasts, to brutal ride cymbal passages and to skull crushing tom rolls.

Of the two tracks, Arrant Woe is probably the superior, or at least the most memorable, and so I’ll discuss it for a bit. The intro consists of a single guitar playing a surprisingly subtle, calm riff that’s merely the prelude to everything else. Beneath it are slowly building rolls. Once everything gets going this guitar drops out completely, leaving nothing but thunderous blasts and pounding riffs in its wake. The following riff is amazing, as the guitars and drums alternate bars for a short bit before lunging into a thrashy attack. After a short while one of the band’s weak spots arises, namely their reliance on transitions where everything drops out and a single guitar leads the way back in. Both tracks are littered with these, and while effective, they are undeniably overused. They also occasionally have the unwanted side effect of making you think the track is over.

This is actually a worse example than any of the others, because the instruments don’t so much drop out, as completely fall apart, and fade away in embarrassment. Still, the following riff more than makes up for it. It’s…dare I say it?...catchy, at least in the way that something like AIDS is catchy. After this part the track continues for another eight or so minutes, and changes riffs and drum patterns continuously. Save for the transitions, there are no other weak moments to be found here. This is also the track with the echo-driven growls that I mentioned before. They could probably use to be a little quieter, so as to allow the riff to, you know, be heard, but they’re still quite interesting. The ending is less climactic than several of the interludes, but it’s still serviceable.

Kratornas are the ultimate extension of raw black metal’s entire ideology. You want raw? Well, here it is. Of course, Kratornas has something that most of the other harsh-as-fuck bands lack – songwriting ability. This is hardly an EP to listen to on sunny days when you’re feeling cheerful, and are in the mood for something comparatively calm and mellow like Beherit or Krieg. But if you’re in the mood for getting pummeled repeatedly by a hammer, shot out of a cannon and coated in bloody, infected razor blades…well, I doubt you’ll be able to do better than Kratornas at committing audio suicide.