Review by Jason Guest
Release Date: 11 February 2014
Recently supporting Prong at their gig at Wolverhampton’s Slade Rooms (reviewed here), Klogr (pronounced “kay-log-are”) made many new friends with their impassioned performance and a bunch of songs that were as infectious as they were powerful. With a distinctly alternative / modern metal sound, live, Klogr play with all the fervour of a band on the verge of making it big, and on record, they’ve got a sound that could shift them into that sphere. Out for a while now, the second album from this Italian mob, Black Snow is, in short, a gem.
With riffs that tend more toward the rock end of the spectrum and plenty hooks at their disposal, Klogr’s three-guitar line-up – a factor that could easily be a problem for some, if not most – know a thing or two about depth and texture. Multi-layered, the tracks do plot sometimes predictable arcs but they are at all times moving and mighty, the needs of the song and the needs of the message balanced well to make each track stand strong by itself and form part of the greater whole. With a reference to the broken world and its destruction that we twenty-first centurions are part of and party to, the album’s title suggests the kind of heft and heaviness of more extreme metal, but Black Snow’s sound is very different. Melodic throughout, laced with hooks, and a clear production, there may be a commercial sound to the album but it’s much darker than its title suggests.
And so while listenable, singalong-able, and instantly memorable, there’s an emotive and sometimes dark side to the album that makes it all the more powerful. Though the band’s influences can be heard, Black Snow is an impressive piece of work and one that suggests that in an album or two, Klogr’s voice will not only be their own, but one that we’ll be hearing much more of.
7.5 out of 10
Track listing:
- Zero Tolerance
- Refuge
- Draw Closer
- Hell Of Income
- Life Is Real
- Heart Breathing
- Falling Crowns
- Guilty And Proud
- Plunder
- Room To Doubt
- Severed Life
- Ambergais
