Album Review: Krakow – minus (Karisma Records)

Following the laborious process of distilling two albums worth of material into one focused gem, Krakow will unleash ‘minus’. The pinnacle achievement of their thirteen-year existence.

With themes spanning from outer space to the hidden worlds deep below, travelling in time from the distant future to the near past like an inverted space odyssey, we are taken on a journey where “we all become stories”, in ways as much a reflection of the ones we tell, as a revelation of the ones we won’t.­

minus is scheduled for release on Karisma Records on 31 August 2018.

A unique offering that gives a wonderful mix of melodic heaviness with sludgy beats and screeching guitars. One such highlight comes in the opening track, Black Wandering Sun courtesy of Phil Campbell (Motorhead, Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons).

The uncomfortable darkness and morose feeling is kept consistent as Sirens thrills and The Stranger brings reflectiveness alongside a booming psychedelic edge. This is a record designed to challenge and challenge it does. Influences are wide and varied but at no point is it easy to to say that Krakow sound like anything else.

It might only be six tracks long but the band do so much with that time it’s an incredibly satisfying record. From Fire, From Stone’s crushing doomy rhythm twists and turns with limbs snapping and bones crunching until it is barely recognisable. The title track is a near 10-minute trip into a melancholy world before Krakow wrap things up with the affecting and gorgeous morose melody of Tidlaus.

minus will make you feel.

Krakow – minus Full Track Listing:

1. Black Wandering Sun
2. Sirens
3. The Stranger
4. From Fire, From Stone
5. minus
6. Tidlaus

You can order the album in a number of formats from Krakow’s Bandcamp here and via Karisma Records here. Find out more by checking out the band’s website, Facebook Page, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.