Krallice

Krallice is a black metal band formed by New York City musicians Colin Marston, Mick Barr, Nick McMaster and Lev Weinstein.
 
Krallice was first mentioned by Marston in February 2008 as a collaboration between himself and Mick Barr. Marston, a member of the instrumental metal groups Behold... The Arctopus and Dysrhythmia, and Barr, a member of tech metal duo Orthrelm, performed together on a split in 2006, and continued a working relationship from which Krallice developed. Lev Weinstein had joined sometime after and the trio recorded and released their eponymous debut album on Canadian independent record label Profound Lore in 2008 to high critical praise.
 
Nick McMaster was brought in to perform live bass. McMaster had been featured as an additional vocalist on the debut album, but joined the band full time shortly after its release (the bass on the first album was performed by both Marston and Barr). McMaster also created some of the artwork for their second album Dimensional Bleedthrough, which was released in November 2009 again on Profound Lore.
 
Krallice plays a form of progressive black metal somewhat similar in style to that of Weakling and Wolves in the Throne Room. The band's music features dense multi-tracked guitars often performing tremolo picked lines described as fast and precise. It is also described as a throwback to the early days of Burzum, Gorgoroth, and Ulver.
 
Marston records the band in his own studio Menegroth: The Thousand Caves. Initially the band intended to use a lo-fi approach similar to much earlier black metal, however, the dense sonorities proved too difficult to control. The result was a more &pure and ambient& sound as opposed to the buzzy quality found on older black metal. The band's lyrics focus on metaphorical and esoteric concepts.
 
Mick Barr - vocals, guitar
Colin Marston - guitar
Lev Weinstein - drums
Nick McMaster - bass, vocals