THE DIARY OF THE MISSED ONE

I've been putting off this review for far too long, and my good friend here on the PA Igor is probably very very relieved to finally be reading (he pressured me to write this review countless times). Krobak is a one band from from Ukraine playing a more moody, clean cut, melancholic form of post rock. I know sounds very typical, but when I say clean cut I mean ridiculously crystal clear production, this may be that everything here is played digital (my guess), but the production is definitely above the most other post rock albums (which can be a good or bad thing, I say good).

The album is cut into three songs, each one a little longer than the last, one is almost archtypical post rock, but more upbeat than you would expect, with an almost awkward start, but smoothes over, and builds into a great song. The second starts a little softer than the first, slow melodic, beautiful, but towards the end, introduces a more metalisized Krobak, with post metalish tones to a drop D palm muted guitar. The last the twenty minute magnum opus starts with a noise start, and gradually builds to what you might expect to be the typical GY!BEian climax, but goes into a huge metal riff that gradually progresses, and then builds down leaving you on edge. That's part of Igors music that is off the grind from normal post rock, it really is melancholic through and through, and it really is very guitar based, but instead of following the post rock greats he makes music that moves in waves, and doesnt really need a super climax to end a song, that seems so overdone in this branch of music. The guitar work is also great, though I cant say that the Agallochish super lack of treble tone is my favorite, he knows what he's doing. He's not afraid to put some acidic effects to the guitar, and not just really on reverb and delay alone, hell he even puts an incredible guitar solo somewhere in there.

Rating this is incredibly tough, there so many great things, but at the same time a lot of little things that just tend to annoy me. As good as the first song is, the first three minutes just seem awkward to me, and I cant say I'm a fan of the steel drum intro... Also the drums to sound pretty fake, but I gotta cut him some slack, one it's incredibly hard to get a drum machine the way you want it, two he's a one man band, we cant ask him to be a pro at EVERYTHING! The last problem for me is the super passive clean guitar tone, it just lack substance during the build up parts, but by itself, it serves it's purpose greatly.

Gotta hand it to ya buddy, you know how to make post rock, and pretty good post rock at that, four stars, BARELY!