Review by Felix on July 16, 2022.

Black metal is pain and despair, isolation and misanthropy, bloodlust and aggression. And maybe it is even more, but you will find all these things in the sound of Kringa, a very remarkable band from Austria. “Total Mental Desecration” has a pretty rumbling demo sound, but this does not affect the overall impression in a negative way. Exactly the opposite is true. The blurred and somewhat ill-defined mix wraps the listener like a hazy fog without a chance to escape. I don’t think that it is possible to lend an ear to the EP occasionally. Either you dive completely into the material or you better stay away. From my point of view, I highly recommend the first option.

The songs show a solid degree of individuality and in particular the vocals contribute a massive dose of negative feelings. Two dudes of the four-piece share the singing, but the basic tone is always the same. Desperate howling gives the four shadowy outbursts a lot of aroma. But the instrumental configurations are also appreciable. The band commutes between aimlessly meandering yet mostly stunning parts and straight hammering sequences. Whenever the Austrians switch into their furious mode, an outstanding black metal experience is guaranteed. Above all, “Wreck the Temples (Ascend to Utter Darkness)” shows how powerful the band can go to work. Especially its driving passages are phenomenal. But the anthem for my girlfriend’s favourite drink (“Nine Prayers, Red Wine”) reveals the compositional class of the unit as well. The song crosses the eight minutes mark with great ease and offers everything – only three seconds of boredom are missing. No doubt, the A side of the vinyl (these 10” with their special format are always nice) sounds great and intensive, but the second half is even better. The darkness becomes all-encompassing, you can't see your hand in front of your eyes and actually it's a pity that it's summer and not a freezing winter. But true black metal disciples like us naturally recognize a genre gem regardless of the season.

What I like very much is that Kringa are able to create a very dense atmosphere without the use of keyboards. Their music conveys a cruel touch as well as a hopeless one. No doubt, this marks a pretty mature work for newcomers. But the strong atmosphere just reflects the compositional class of the band. Their songs are neither repetitive nor heterogeneous. The different parts (the wild, the strict, the meditative) are cleverly connected and given this fact, the diabolically good flow of the pieces is only logical. Finally, the material scores with a pretty personal note – at least for me who is not very familiar with a lot of formations in the “similar artists” list (shame on me!). However, I can say that some sequences of “Nine Prayers, Red Wine” are not too far away from the compositions which made “De Mystereiis Dom Sathanas” to the unique masterpiece it is. I guess a greater compliment is hardly possible.

rating: 9.3 out of 10