Krig – Narcissistic Mechanism (2010)

Hailing from Brazil, we have Krig a Death/Grind band that features a very different sound from most bands of the genre. “Narcissistic Mechanism” is the band’s fourth release, and they clearly show signs of musical maturity in their songs.

The album starts with a very powerful and progressive piece called “Folish Evildoes II”, and it prepares you mentally for something… totally different to what you are going to listen to in the following tracks. The band busts out with some traditional Grindcore riffs and brutal vocals that will surely make you jump out of your chair after the first song.

In order to settle from this brutal change we listened to a few more tracks and started to appreciate Krig’s music more. We are not huge fans of Grindcore, but this band does a great job at mixing more traditional Death Metal riffs as well as more intricate song structures and rhythms than your average Grindcore band. All this is very well done and needs more than a few listens to fully appreciate this release.

There are so many tempo changes and melodic aspect to the songs in “Narcissistic Mechanism” that calling this a pure Death/Grind band would not be right. The vocals and the overall guitar distortion indicates extreme brutality, but the underlying elements make this release very refreshing in our opinion, not as much as bands like Garden Of Shadows, but in that same area.

As the 10 tracks in this album progress the band keeps exploring both brutal and melodic aspects of their music and we start to like this release even more. Paired with an excellent production that let’s you fully digest every instrument used, “Narcissistic Mechanism” is a very complex release that will surely turn a few heads around and hopefully gets this band a solid record label.

Overall, this album is one of the most innovative we have received in the genre of Death/Grind metal. The band excels at both brutality and melody, with well design riffs and solos. Paired these elements with excellent tempo changes and you get a highly complex and well written release. If you like both brutality and melody in your music, then stop reading this review and head over to the band’s myspace to pick up a copy of this album.

Release: 2010

Country: Brazil