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I thought this album had been released independently, so I was surprised. I looked at the promo and saw no label nor logo. I have some stereotypes about those type of recordings (demos, self-releases) and this album certainly didn’t fit any of them. But I have seen and heard stranger things. I was surprised because this recording features the great pallet of sounds of Krakow. I was more taken aback by the material. Monolith is an impressive record. Very well-written, very mature and with a lot of variety while still keeping a singular identity. Then, I was surprised because I couldn’t find any info regarding White Elephant recordings, but that’s less important.
I think most people out there have found it easy to fit this band into the stoner rock genre. But that doesn’t cut it at all. For starters, the blues backbone is not drawn that incisively in these songs. The rustic 70’s imagery that most bands of the ilk evoke is nowhere near the emotional discharge that this quartet attempts and succeeds to draw. By all accounts Monolith is a very modern record. One that has embraced the open spaces of post rock, so well-worked by bands like Khoma and Cult of Luna. One that doesn’t go for the cheap angle and simply writes crescendos.
The dynamics here are different. When the songs grow, they do so through powerful but emotive riffs. When they start fast and go for an immediate low blow, they do so just as well. “The Art of Emotion” could have been in rock radio, if rock radio didn’t suck so hard. And I am saying that while liking the song and hating rock radio and its infinite playlist of fifteen. The song in question has the drive and the vocal lines are filtered for further effect It is catchy and it’s got an alt rock quality to it. Even if at parts they remind me of Stabbing Westward without the industrial overtones and in others they seem to have borrowed the solos and tonalities from Josh Homme.
Then there are the slower songs, the stoner or doom songs some may say, the ones with the guttural vocals and the grander riffs. The range is there. That’s where Krakow succeed. They have a single voice, but their songs have wide appeal.
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