Hyperion (EP)

Musical style and writing

The music critic Greg Majewski noted the importance of the EP's recording date of July 2013. "The three songs which comprise its 23 minutes act as a virtual bridge between the thematic repetition of 2012’s Years Past Matter and Ygg Huur’s brisker, compact approach. Present-day Krallice – while still retaining the same lineup – is a different beast than its pre-hiatus incarnation; shorter, to-the-point, but no less volatile. As such, Hyperion stands as a document of a band mid-transition, testing the extent of the newfound abilities gained from its members’ extracurricular activities in Gorguts (Marston), the resuscitated Behold the Arctopus (Marston again), death metal bass-drum duo Geryon (McMaster and Weinstein) and the evolving weirdness Mick Barr continues to unleash upon willing ears."

The lyrics frequently refer to astral objects, solar bodies and mythological figures.

Critical reception

Hyperion was received positively by music critics. Critics praised the depth and complexity of the compositions as well as the musical growth displayed on it. Pitchfork described the album as "a succinct, explosive encapsulation of the Brooklyn black metal band's evolution and progression during the last decade. This band keeps improving incrementally, avoiding major statements of reinvention or re-emergence in favor of doggedly refining what it is they’ve done from the very start." They highlighted the second track for particular praise, describing it as the band's "new compositional apex" and as "one of the most thrilling, difficult two-minute clips of the band’s career. After you notice it, you have to hear it again and again, standing back to marvel at the sheer audacity of the moment." Spin magazine's Colin Joyce wrote that the EP "marked another subtle transformation for the Brooklyn quartet. Previously content to craft assemblages of nothing but jagged edges, they sand away the instrumental excess on this three-track, sub-30-minute release, so that even a ten-minute cavalcade of French-braided guitar workouts called “Assuming Memory” feels economical. represents a new highpoint in sheer density for guitarists Mick Barr and Colin Marston’s six-stringed entanglement, but it doesn’t happen at the expense of the effusive torrents of energy that make the band so life-affirming in the first place. They’re adding more layers to an already complicated formula, but doing so with a sleight of hand."

Personnel