GERYON, was a fearsome giant from the Greek mythology, as it was the tenth labor of Hercules (cattle of Geryon) .It is also described in Dante’s “Inferno” poem, as a winged beast ,dwelling in the ninth circle. So much for history though as much fascinated I am with mythology, GERYON is the project band of KRALLICE’s bassist and vocalist, Nicholas McMaster and drummer Lev Weinstein , along with the man who produced this album, Colin Marston.”The Wound And The Bow“, is their second release, succeeding their first self-titled album.
We have to be very open minded and really into death/black metal to plunge deep into our minds in order to comprehend such piece of music art. Their technical death metal, consisted only of bass and drums, creates a form of sound that is murky in atmosphere ,harsh ,throaty and chaotic. Stripped to its bones death metal!
It requires your full attention, to absorb properly, all the numerous tempos and attitude changes. Lots of devastating bass riffs, that give you the sense, that guitars are no longer necessary. Primitive and mutant drum parts, filling every part, and of course, the hellish and painful distant yells of McMaster , are put together, to give us a more straight forward, technical death metal style. Songs like ”Silent Command”, ”Lys”, ”The Wound and the Bow” and closing track ”Dioscuri”, emphasize this point of view. While there are also songs like ”Dawn”, ”Skein” and ”Legion” that can be described as chaotic and twisted as it can get.
That’s more than what I need to read about an album and go have a listen to it, but there is this other side of the coin too. The more I listen to it -and I did it a lot of times- the name KRALLICE never left my mind. Its like listening to a new album from them that lacks the ability, to cut loose from the ties of it. Furthermore, as talent and technical skills together with inventiveness, seem to loop in an circle between tracks, the repeating bass riffs and drumming sometimes make it unbearable and a bit tiring, to continue listening.
Nevertheless, that’s a personal opinion, don’t bypass this album. Be sure to check GERYON’s ”The Wound and the Bow”, so that you can appreciate this piece of music art, on your own!
[page_title text=”FEATURED SONG”]