KRATE - Shadow Incident

In 2019 the industrial project KRATE launched one of my favorite albums of that year, "Swarm of Voices". The album which featured so many international collaborations, managed to keep a solid theme and structure down despite so many other artists involvement. It was quite a moving album, as well, as I rated it a nine out of ten at the time. In recent times, KRATE has continued on the legacy of "Swarm of Voices" with the "Lost Tracks" release cycle. This, as you may guess, contains outtakes and other tracks from "Swarm of Voices" that never made the cut. KRATE has gone ahead and finished those track and are now releasing them in small EPs. Their latest outing is "Shadow Incident" which further shows KRATE's mastery of twisted electronics in any shape or form.

'Shadow Incident' is the title track of the EP and is the one to start off the shebang. Perhaps purposefully released on October 25th, 2021 to coincide with the spookiest season of them all, 'Shadow Incident' takes a noisy synth and stretches it out for a drone effect. Haunting bells come in from afar and severs any connection to bright light; darkness overwhelms as distorted, demonic vocals kick in alongside a heart-pounding percussive beat. Plenty of other spooky samples and effect make their way throughout the seven-minute and thirty-eight second track, including crunchy noise, raw instruments, and distorted pedals. 



The second track is titled "Dread Grief Trails Bright Phantoms" which is titled after a partial Nick Cave quote. KRATE has described the song as exploring "the feelings of loss and grief after the death of a loved one." It is a brilliant piece considering the theme; the dark industrial bits give off a sense of sadness and heaviness while brighter synths warm-up the soul. It's as if the perspective of this song is mourning their loved one but also reflecting on all the good times they spent together. Well done.

The final track on the album is titled 'Stranger You Know' and features Scott Mitting of Wayward Sun as vocalist. Streams of water and what sounds like wind blowing mix with vocal samples in the beginning as the track slowly descends into a noisy industrial piece. I wasn't a huge fan of the structure of this track as I felt it wasn't as solid as most of KRATE's other work. Sure, there's a knocking beat in the background but all the other samples feel as if they were slapped together unwillingly. It's a bit odd coming from KRATE. It's not a terrible track, but it's not a great one either. It's just okay. 

KRATE's "Shadow Incident" then is still worth listening to; sure, I was not fond of the final song on the EP, but the other two are just as brilliant as anything I heard on "Swarm of Voices". I'm hoping that the releases of these small EPs means something bigger is coming down the line, such as a brand new album. However, that remains to be seen but I can't wait for the next "Lost Tracks" release to come out nonetheless. Seven out of ten! 

This review was commissioned through our Ko-fi page.
Nov 02 2021