Band: Klor

Album: “Klor”

Label: Ars Magna Recordings

Release date: January 13, 2012

Well, colour me fifty shades of confused. Klor’s aesthetic seems to lean towards nature; the logo made of twigs, and the digipak interior associating various flora with the song titles, but the music really doesn’t seem to reflect that aesthetic. Near as I can tell, their name means “chlorine” in Danish, so I’m not really sure what they’re going for here.

But what really matters is the music of course. Klor give us generally mid-paced, dissonant black metal. They weave together a weird combination of sounds that, much like their image, seems to have trouble finding itself; at times I’m reminded of a slower Ildjarn in its stripped-down minimalism, and at other times I hear more of a post-black, introspective sound.

There’s something off about the guitar tone. I know the distortion and dissonance is intentional, but their tone in tracks like “Pagan Inheritance” doesn’t feel right. It doesn’t contribute anything particularly evocative to the music and is annoying to listen to. When Klor get things on point, such as on the more palatable “Helmet Overgrown with Weeds,” they can be pretty good. These moments, however, are a little too far between to really make a deep impact.

backseat singers are the comment

I don’t know. This wasn’t an offensive album by any means, but it didn’t do much for me and I won’t remember anything about it a few weeks from now. It’s possible that I just don’t get what they were going for, but it’s more likely that Klor missed the mark with this album. Maybe they’ll get things to congeal together a bit better on the next one.
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