Review Summary: Another monolithic post-rock extravaganza....
To understand the mission statement of German "new 3 piece down tempo metal band" Kodiak you need to look no further then their self description on last.fm.
"
KODIAK (Germany) are a new 3 piece down tempo metal band. Their sound excels as a mixture of monolithic ultraheavy compositions with expressionistic poems. Their algid songs consist of long monotonous build-ups (comparable to a long lonely haunting trip through the arctic) and some seldom parts of eruption, disembarrassment and hope."
Obviously, as a post-rock listener i'm sure you have heard such sentiments expressed before. These claims are often on dubious ground as it would seem 9 times out of 10 that very few of these bands claiming monolithic, dense and epic soundscapes actually have something new to bring to the table. Even saying
this is an old story. Which is unfortunate, as it would seem this genre is on a huge decline (before I have even properly investigated it, I might add). Whatever the truth of the matter lets take at Kodiak's first self titled release, of which its sludge influences might put it more in the realms of "post-metal" groups such as Isis.
The album has two songs,
Beginning and
End.
Beginning stretches to 18:17 minutes in length, whilst
End clocks in at 21:15. Both are characterised by the "post rock buildup" of course, and whilst this is nothing new the band does a good job for the most part in making it sound good. The production is the biggest strength on
Kodiak, every instrument is rich and shimmering with life but it is the arrangements themselves which could make or break it for the listener.
Beginning opens with with a gorgeous string section, which stretches out for a bit slowly introducing distorted guitars. It sounds pretty good, though the strings get lost in the mix a little. The main bulk of
Beginning is sludgy rock, characterised by its stop-start, barren repetition. This could be seen as a little overwrought, but the band keeps enough dynamics happening in between sections with harmonic feedback, little rhythmic licks and droning bass to hold interest until the fantastic end section. Sure, it sounds like a lot of other post-rock climaxes but that never stopped a musical passage from being being pretty. Maybe dull and unoriginal, but still, pretty.
End is a similar affair, just with a different tone at the start. It's droning noise intro and affected samples are rather engaging, it's "rock" leanings which become increasingly evident later on however could be considered a different story. With it's slow, plodding kickdrum repeated over and over the song builds itself entirely around the concept of this
thud, the glorious tone of the guitars and subtle feedback weaving themselves around saving it a little from mediocrity. The climax is good, but it is very similar to the track that came before it (and the work of several other post-rock acts). It ends at its highest point of intensity with the whole thing just stopping, leaving some ambient noises to drift us off to sleep (maybe this is the long, haunting trip through the arctic we were promised).
Kodiak is yet another post-rock group which promises the sublime but disappoints, however this is not to say that their 2009 debut is not a worthwhile release. There are enough dynamics to keep fans of groups such as Switchblade, Isis, Pelican, Earth or A Storm Of Light happy in the meantime until one of these groups come out with something new,
Kodiak definitely suitable for good background music with it's unobtrusive, shimmering production. Though the arrangements are somewhat slight in terms of the post-rock canon what the group sets out to achieve they do a reasonably good job with, and it is a solid first effort.
