A surprisingly varied listen.
I’m all for a band having a deep meaning behind their moniker, however, while the press release that accompanies ‘Till You Decay’ may go to great pains to explain that KLOGR is pronounced “Kay-log-are” and is a term derived from Weber-Fechner’s law of fundamental psychophysical relationship [S = K log R] (which for those (like me) not in the know, means the amount of stimulus required by each sense to be triggered on a cognitive level). However anyone merely taking a quick glimpse at the rather smart CD cover for this album will understandably walk away believing the band are rather clunkily called “Clogger”...
Anyway putting that faux-pas to one side, ‘Till You Decay’, which is the first effort from this Italian/American outfit, blends Alt-rock and Alt-Metal to create a punchy, yet melodic approach that has the potential to appeal to a broad fan-base. Melody more often rules over power and when fused to stinging riffs and a varied and often impressive vocal style, ‘Till You Decay’ is pleasingly eclectic, while remaining satisfyingly focused. Huge guitars and busy drumming are the order of the day on the likes of ‘Self Loathing’ and ‘Value Of Sin’, with both songs also highlighting the varied vocal attack of lead singer “Rusty”.
Often tempted into a shrill scream and the odd growl, “Rusty” is a frontman capable and willing to mix his more extreme styles with an engaging clean vocal and an interesting almost spoken approach that allows the band to get their lyrical message across. Loosely based round a concept that “the society around us controls us, judges us and ultimately suffocates us, making for a society that is easily controlled and made subservient”, the songs on ‘Till You Decay’ also manage to convey this claustrophobic, bleak idea - sometimes too effectively. The intentional feeling of oppression and “control” sometimes leads to songs that are slightly too hard to engage with, although repeated listens does unlock this aspect of the album to a greater degree.
Intense and hard hitting, the brash riffs mixed with a more refined seam of melody on ‘Till You Decay’ makes for a sound that while sometimes more interesting than completely convincing, does offer up a surprisingly varied listen. KLOGR have a few rough edges to refine, but on this evidence there’s little doubt that they have the talent to suggest that with time they’ll do exactly that.
Not an unmitigated success, but still a debut album that marks KLOGR out as more than worth keeping an eye on.
Steven Reid
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