By Jonathan Smith
Dimensional Bleedthrough is the sophomore effort from New York’s Krallice. Like the band’s debut, the record is generally steeped in the more recent “avant-garde” or “post-Black Metal” sound, but it offers enough of the little details that are recognizably the group’s own. Colin Marston and Mick Barr’s two guitars are paired side-by-side with one another, producing a “layered” sound that is front-and-center in the mix. Barr’s vocals, on the other hand, sound tinny and distant despite the force of his screams. A similar effect is heard with regard to Lev Weinstein’s drums. All of this leads to an album that sounds as though a great deal of production went into making it sound unproduced. The end result is the “thin” sound of earlier Norwegian black metal bands mixed with “fatter” lead guitars. The title track of Dimensional Bleedthrough is also the opening track, and the first few minutes are filled fast and loose tremolo riffs that change direction with little notice. However, the musical variation is never allowed to escape a larger structure, and by the climax of the eleven minute track Krallice has brought all the sounds together in a rhythmic and thundering march toward the song’s end. It definitely sounds as though the band put a lot of effort into carefully controlling how each section of the song sounds, right down to levels of distortion at different moments. These moments act as signposts, alerting the listener to a change in a track’s direction. For the most part it all works, though Dimensional Bleedthrough likely wouldn’t convince a Krallice skeptic. One of the drawbacks of the record’s sound is that it can sound repetitive, and with more than a few tracks starting with screeching feedback, individual songs don’t stand out as well as they could. Clocking in at almost eighty minutes, the album feels like a long slog at times. However, hearing the many moments that Krallice hit their stride and all of the elements come together makes Dimensional Bleedthrough worth the time that one puts into it.
(Profound Lore)
