Maybe not all of them. I don't think most of the others would make it work as well as CKRAFT do. Nor do I think it would work for something other than this specific band of jazz metal, and the specific lineup configuration is part of what makes CKRAFT sound this unique. It was the reason why the band piqued my interest in the first place, enough that I needed to make that very specific information the gist of this review's teaser. Yes, the band does have more conventional instruments in its rhythm section of bass, drums, and guitars, hence why they are a metal band after all. And the saxophone is an instrument I've seen get utilized in metal more and more, sometimes as a guest performance, but bands like White Ward or Ashenspire having the saxophonists as actual members shows how much the saxophone is becoming commonplace. But accordion acceptance in metal is far from the norm. Just ask E-an-na.
This brand of avant-garde metal, this more metallic take on avant-prog, is one I've touched on previously, and in that review I have already attempted to trace that lineage through other acts like Zu, Naked City, Spastic Ink, Ruins, Magma, and King Crimson, and how this need to make complex rock music has been around for a long time. CKRAFT especially go hard on the "jazz" part of the sound, not only because their sound palette is more prone for it than just having a saxophone somewhere in the mix, with the instrumental nature of the band allowing all five instruments to have similar prominence in the mix and in the songwriting, with the bass being the one instrument that gets the least amount of moments to shine comparatively, though that's also because a lot of the moments in the songs rely on all instruments working together rather than focusing as much on solo moments.
Uncommon Grounds is a significantly shorter album than CKRAFT's debut, Epic Discordant Vision was, by more than ten minutes. Normally one would have expected this runtime progression in reverse, but that does make Uncommon Grounds a more accessible album for acting as a first contact one would have with the band, alongside all the marginal improvements in recording quality and songwriting. Outside of the expected technical noodling that is there on occasion, what really works about the band's sound is how much the rhythm section takes its job of grounding the music in metal, with the distortion and the somewhat djenty chugging making it often sound like the love child between Meshuggah and Mahavishnu Orchestra.
The most understated aspect about why Uncommon Grounds works as well as it does is how the enhanced accordion can integrate both in the jazzier part of the soundscape, and through its distortion, also with the more metal side. Even though this kind of blend of sounds is not unique, I feel like that is, if I had to pinpoint it, the one aspect that does make CKRAFT unique.
