KaaK - KaaK

KaaK is a group of lovely Russians currently based in Vienna, Austria. And they perform in industrial metal. While I read a little information about the group, it said that while they were once "Cyber Grind-Mathcore", they progressed to "Extreme Industrial Metal". I have no fucking clue what "Cyber Grind-Mathcore" could possibly mean, and I really just did not give two shits to look it up. And I really don't understand what "Extreme Industrial Metal" could mean, either. Industrial Metal usually is pretty rough to begin off with, and when I listened to this album, there really isn't anything too, too extreme about it. I mean, in comparison to guys such as Eschaton Hive, KaaK is rather soothing. However, I am not here to start a forum debate that will eventually lead to someone saying, "This isn't Extreme Industrial Metal, this is progressive thrash cybercore electronic metal." I am here to just discuss the album, and not the semantics of genre defining.

The band consists of four members at the moment, with a long history of people coming in and dropping out just as fast. At the moment, the group consists of Filin, Zhopa, Argganreth, and mix-errr. And, together, they have created a pretty awesome album of mostly metal, with little influences from industrial. In fact, I'd probably go so far as to say that there really isn't much industrial influence on this album. Which is a damn good thing.

I've seen one too many albums where the industrial influences in the form of electronics get in the way of the shredding guitar riffs that plague your very souls. Help Me is a prime example of how good electronics are weaved into a metal song. You have, for the most part, the guitars slamming you in the face, and the vocals really don't get all digitally messed with. When the vocals die down, and the instruments take the forefront of the song, is when you hear nice synth work accompanying the shredding. And it works tremendously.

And I find this to be a template for a lot of the songs. You really get beaten up and chewed out with the metal influences while Filin throws his wicked voice into the open, but when he dies down is when the electronics really shine through. I find the beat sometimes, albeit rarely, being harder than the singing, well, screaming that's going on. But, that's alright, for the beat to the songs just never cease to entertain. I mean, at the current moment, I am going through the track Rabid Dreams, and it's just a fun ride.

What I think that KaaK did right is that they waited for a while before they released their first studio album. I mean, the group formed in 2006, and waited about seven years to release their first official album, and that has paid off tremendously. Unlike a lot of other projects that just shoot to release every song they have because they think it's the greatest thing in the world, they let their anger fester for a proper release, and that came forth in this album. There's a lot to love about this album, and KaaK deserves recognition for doing industrial metal right. Aug 15 2013