Krigsgrav – Fires in the Fall (Review)

Krigsgrav are a black metal band from the US and this is their seventh album.

I haven’t caught up with Krigsgrav since their 2016 album Waves of Degradation, so it’s good to check in with them once more. Fires in the Fall contains 53 minutes of new material and reveals some changes to the band’s sound, which can be roughly and facetiously summarised as shorter songs, more doom.

The Krigsgrav of 2023 has a striking sound. This record sounds massive, expansive, and well-rounded. Thankfully the material itself makes good use of the high production values.

This is modern atmospheric black metal with a strong melodic flavour and a meaty old-school death/doom metal influence. Taken together this results in a collection of tracks that emphasise mood and feeling, yet still have a surprising number of hooks.

So, if you take the melodic death/doom of bands like Paradise Lost, Katatonia, and labelmates Mother of Graves and then reinterpret this through an expressive black metal lens, (think bands like Agalloch, Alda, Fen, and Blackbraid), and then throw in a bit of Insomnium‘s songwriting smarts and emotive presence, you’ll have a rough idea of where Fires in the Fall is coming from. Krigsgrav make this style their own though, make no mistake.

The songs have a colourful grandeur to them that’s remarkably potent. Krigsgrav clearly know what they’re doing with their hybrid melodic style. Taking strengths from both parent genres, the band fuse their black and doom influences together into songs that are greater than the sum of their parts. All of Fires in the Fall feels impeccably crafted, and the impression of high quality is only cemented and reinforced the more that you get to know it.

Fires in the Fall is a sleek, professional record that you would expect and hope would earn Krigsgrav the approbation that they rightly deserve. It really is accomplished and enjoyable. If this sort of style appeals to you then this is masterfully executed example of it.

Very highly recommended.