Artist: Wald Krypta
Title: Disenchantment
Type: Album
Label: Eternal Death
‘This just dropped into my line of sight from pretty much nowhere’ part 28. Or something. Yes I had neither prior knowledge of this Canadian/American duo nor much of a clue what I was letting myself in for either. A little due diligence done (aka ‘research’) and I settled back.
Black and white cover, pretty neat illustration, off we go ‘Into Solace’. The sound straight off is raw and pretty basic as far as production values go but the sound has that fine ragged edged black metal with a dash of punk ‘fuckit’ style. The vocals are set back in the mix a little, the sudden shift in key bringing a sudden darkness to the song and the drumming is stark. There is no fat here, every sound and riff and tempo shift is utilized and at its sudden end I am left with the impression of having been a little too close to a feral animal. ‘Opulent Impudence’ follows the same mid paced tempo; the drums may be a little sharp for some but if so you’re probably listening to the wrong style of black metal anyway. The thing is this is just so vibrant – I feel like I’m there in some tiny room with them. There’s a weird thing to their melodies too, as though there’s the roots of folk music somewhere in the soil this sprang from but so mutated by the world it has grown into that its like an echo, a memory layered over by the stripped down black metal with a layer of crust over the top.
Their songs aren’t just short and sharp either. ‘Depraved Insolence’ is a near seven and a half minute epic. We get time changes, the vocals shifting from snarl to a sinister gargle, the tremelo-picking melodic linesrising from the mire. There’s an almost full stop at one point, a click and then a fantastic new melody cuts in. This, in the best of ways, sounds like two guys just walked in, plugged into and amp and sat behind the drumkit and just went for it. Maybe they did? I don’t care because to me at least there is something strangely compelling. It is not the loudest black metal band you’ve ever heard, not the fastest, not the heaviest or darkest. But what it is, is in your face, brutally honest stripped back music. Nothing here is over complicated with layers or production; it has the feel of being determined, dogmatic even in this raw-as-it-lands-on-your-plate approach.
And again I cannot shake that weird feeling this has some attachment to the land but in a way folk music does rather than the way black metal often does. ‘Altar Of Desecration’ of all things doubles down on this feeling, and again we get the sudden shifts in tempo or key with no smoothing over the edges.
I have to press home the fact that none of this sounds amateurish or shambolic. It just sounds so god damned real; pick up and fucking play some fantastic, enthralling music.
The title track has a glorious rolling riff, the drums powering it on and that black metal melody keening in the air. ‘Rotten Vessel’ has a tinge of more viking metal style in it perhaps but also a sombre tone that hits so hard from their sound as there is nothing to hide it, no swathes of keyboards od smooth engineering – raw emotion hitting you.
This is rooted deep in old school black metal, the originators, skipping the years between but adding a whole personal history to it. Wald Krypta’s approach is extreme. Very. It has been a while since I have heard something as basic, and as utterly stripped to bare bones as this that has still got a bitter, glaring personality of its own staring out at you teeth bared. I’d love to see the lyrics for this album too I think, as I can’t help but feel they would be as interesting as the music, just because again something about this project suggests a very clear vision.
Not for everyone, but when has that stopped any of us eh? A bit of a surprise gem to say the least. Try it.
Gizmo
Walking The Liminal Space 