Krokofant — Krokofant II
The songs begin with prog rock-esque note-heavy unison figures, and later give way to more loosely structured sections of flashy solos. The band's playing is fluent and confident, utterly relaxed and natural in their uncannily precise unisons. I would guess this is an experienced live band.
They dive into the stop/starting complex head riffs with fierce abandon, forcing a workable beat out of the at-times confusing and convoluted structures, which involve a lot of half-repeated phrases and walking up and down scales. The harmonic structure, by contrast to the rhythm, is quite simple, adhering predictably to the most common hard rock and blues tonalities, with few surprising note choices, and not much change throughout the album.
Guitarist Tom Hasslan, in particular, serves to make the band's sound a great deal more conventional with his pentatonic shred style, wailing on the blues in a shameless throwback manner. I am reminded of all the dads insisting that Van Halen and Led Zeppelin were the one and only glory days of music. In addition to sounding overly familiar, the guitarist seems unaware than this that the other two members of his group are playing a style a bit more subtle and dynamic than hard rock.
Saxophonist Jørgen Mathisen is most often heard doubling Hasslan's power chords, but when he does solo, there is a sense of melodic inventiveness and gradual unfolding Hasslan does not seem to grasp.
Axel Skalstad's busy drumming is like jazz fusion with a heavier touch, a downpour of fills with perfectly calculated accents beating home the odd metered pulses. Out of the 3 members of the band, he has the most exuberance and boundless energy.
The music is polished and technically impressive, but doesn't have much sentimentality or strong emotion, to my ears, feeling intellectually driven and detached. It is focused primarily on rhythmic cleverness and sinewy thick heaviness. Rather than being emotional statements, the compositions are more like vehicles for jamming, ways for the band to get momentum going and play some solos. There isn't much difference from track to track, and the songs feel short on content and real meaning.
The closest the band comes to being truly memorable is when, such as in the chorus of "Snakedog", Mathisen plays a countermelody to Hasslan's riffing, rather than following it exactly. There are certainly moments earlier on this album when unison is overused to the point that it feels like a technical exercise.
This band would be enjoyable to watch play in concert, but I find myself wishing their 2nd album had a bit more of an arc, and a bit more variety. These 6 songs are virtually interchangeable. The band shreds marvellously, but their music could use a bit more direction, distinctiveness and feeling.