Valkyrian Music

Krieg
Transient
Released 6th October 2014
Black Metal
Released via Candlelight Record

‘Transient’ is the new album from the New Jersey -based, American black metal band Krieg. The band was formed back in 1995 and has changed their style a lot over the years. The latest album, the follow-up to ‘The Isolationist’, has been described as “churning cacophony of modern black metal, crust punk, and experimental noise.“

Just in case the album cover itself wasn’t bleak or eerie enough, the first song The Order of the Solitary Road definitely adds to the grim atmosphere thanks to the haunting, dark ambient -style intro. This is followed by a barrage of equally bleak and nihilistic black metal akin to the likes of Leviathan, Nachtmystium and to some extent Burzum. The pace tends to vary depending on the song ranging from the slow, ponderous and almost doom metal -style grooving guitar riffs; for example the latter half of To Speak with Ghosts to the mid-paced and ferocious, as evident in the guitars at the start of Return Fire and Time.

Vocalist N. Imperial’s screams sound as creepy as ever. When paired with the nihilistic guitars and the additional noise such as the dark ambient intro to Ruin Our Lives and the melancholic experimental noise of Home, each song leaves a bitter taste in the listener’s mouth. The band’s cover of Amebix’s Winter is yet another manifestation of this feeling. The chorus and the agonizing cries of “Winter!” alone are enough to send shivers down my spine. Yet the undisputed highlight of the album is Walk With Them Unnoticed which is also the most complex song on here. The intro is almost catchy at times due to the “rocking” guitar melodies that make even the bleakest screams sound more refined, softening the blow to the eardrums.

Overall ‘Transient’ is everything that one would expect to hear from Krieg. For those unfamiliar with the band, I’d recommend this if you’re a fan of Leviathan, Nachtmystium, Clandestine Blaze, Burzum or any other black metal band that has ever experimented with dark ambient.

3.5/5

Iza Raittila

This entry was posted on 30th August 2014 at 9:42 pm and is filed under Uncategorized with tags Black Metal, Dark ambient, experimental noise, USBM. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.