Krüller is fantastic. It had me going back to Beastland to feel the difference, which is colossal. Author & Punisher is an Industrial musician with an edge. Using his own custom built VST controllers, Author manifests a physicality to his music. The punishing landscapes of weighty mechanical monotony birthed through sweat and tears. Beastland had a unruly harshness about it. With time, it faded from memory. Krüller on the other hand opens up with streaks of color nestled between its slow grudging strikes of percussion. His voice, now melodic and sustaining, gushes with painful emotions. Alongside the streaking synths that burst brief sparkles of reprieve, it becomes a memorable craft. The best of this musician I've heard to date so far.
Although this mostly speaks to the opening song, the through line is often the relation between voice and what offerings of melody come by. The record is dense in atmosphere, a wash of fuzz and static broken apart by the smashes of snares and collisions of kicks as its percussion arrives with a force overcoming any obstacle. They drag and groan, slugging with a lethargic crawl that subtly gives way to the fuzzy atmospheres as the record broods with each passing song. Through its lengthy drives, often six or more minutes, creeps of resolve briefly emerge, always fizzling back to the shadows. Its a burdensome experience. One worth enduring for its glimmers of hope.
Glorybox
is my favorite song. The gravitas of pain the album encompasses
initially had me hearing it as a transsexual expression. The cries of
"Give me a reason to be a woman, I just want to be a woman" so harrowing
and wrought with anguish. It mirrored pains of bodily identity, however
turned out to be a cover of Portishead's original. Now I know it, I can
hear the difference in the music, best revealed by the guitar solo. It
still is a remarkable cover on a brilliant record that may be a little
to weighty to remember every moment with the same thrill of its better
parts. It must be said its peaks soar to a punishing and unique place
you wont forget in a hurry.
Rating: 7/10