Band:	Krokodil
Album:	Nachash
Style:	Progressive sludge metal
Release date:	November 10, 2014
A review by:	Ilham

01. Shatter
02. Skin Of The Earth
03. Dead Man's Path
04. A Life Lived In Copper, But Painted In Gold
05. Reptilia Familiar
06. Porcelain Bones
07. The Collapse
08. Sleep Well, Medusa
09. Ragnarock
10. Sun Riders
11. Sobek
12. Phyllotaxis

Beards. Moustaches. 20 mm gauges. Tattoo sleeves and sleeveless shirts. Total package. But who cares, seriously? I'm not like a certain woman who judges a whole bunch of people based on looks and stereotypes. So far, I've heard a lot about Krokodil because of its line-up, but no one's ever talked about the actual music. Let's fix that right now.

"The band with the new bassist from Slipknot". "There are two members from SikTh in there". "It's kind of a supergroup with guys from Hexes and Cry For Silence". Doesn't matter, really. It helps them get likes on Facebook and get cool touring spots, but in the end, they will only last if they prove be to be relevant. So... Are they? Enough.

Krokodil plays a very metallic in-your-face brand of hardcore you could call rooted in sludge metal, incorporating strong early-Mastodon vibes at times and touches of Gojira at others. With their three guitarists on board, it's riffs galore as you could expect. However, I'm sure you're familiar with the proverb stating that "too many cooks spoil the broth", and in this case I wouldn't say the soup is ruined, but rather not original enough to have necessitated the expert contributions of three talented chefs.

Nevertheless, Nachash is packed with groovy riffs and catchy tunes. The songs flow one after the other in an order that makes it easy for the listener to lose track of time. With its forty-five minutes, the album isn't unnecessarily long in reality but still drags on in the end. Unless you're one of the very few people on planet Earth who do not mind uni-dimensional and unvaried vocals. Indeed, no matter how engaging and powerful that low-pitched shouting is, it could only become tiresome after a while, even with the addition of that instrumental track, some short passages with screeches scattered around the album, and the clean verses in "The Collapse".

I feel it is now necessary to conclude and set a few things straight, as I have the impression I haven't been entirely positive throughout these paragraphs. Nachash is a very enjoyable album for any fan of groovy and riff-oriented extreme metal. However, I am afraid its lack of originality and the previously mentioned flaws will deter the most critical of you from replaying it often. Now, if you make the mistake of falling for the supergroup trap, you'll most likely be disappointed. But when you take what Krokodil offers you, just like you would any other band releasing their début, you can only appreciate it and hope for a better follow-up.

I myself will stop lying to you and to myself and go back to staring at their pictures. Meanwhile, help yourself, listen to Nachash here, maybe there's something in their music that will help that ridiculous peach fuzz of yours turn into a full beard.