Today, German black metal mavericks Krater reveal a new video for “Prayer for Demise.” The track hails from the band’s critically acclaimed fourth album, Venenare, released this past November via Eisenwald. See & hear Krater’s “Prayer for Demise” video its entirety [below] at Eisenwald’s official YouTube channel.
A study in patience and progress, Krater formed in 2003. In the band’s earliest days – across two demos, two splits, and 2006’s debut album, Das Relikt des Triumphes – the Krater sound tended more toward pagan black metal, but powerfully so. Come 2008, however, a period of silence and self-reflection followed…
When at last those sounds arrived, Krater had taken on a new form: one partly tied to their earlier traditionalism, another more so modernized. This burst-chrysalis came in the shape of 2011’s Nocebo, and following yet another lineup shake-up, 2016’s masterful Urere, courtesy of current label home Eisenwald. However, with these still-poignant albums as the foundation, Krater have now delivered their magnum opus with Venenare.
A 50-minute work broken into nine songs but unified as one winding, widescreen composition, Venenare shows Krater at the height of their all-too-considerable powers, a blinding and windswept vortex of sumptuous songcraft and passionate execution. Motifs slice and dice, blast and race with a grace that’s simply stunning, as melodic counterplay runs riot with a proud ‘n’ powerful assertion of classic metal sensibility. Krater’s contours here undeniably exude a sleek and urban quality, but with abstracted hints of their pagan past subtly woven in to the soundfield, the result is staunchly second-wave black metal bravely recast for the 21st century. Venenare is thus timeless, yet forward-thinking all the same.
With cover artwork courtesy of Misanthropic-Art and mixing & mastering handled by Esoteric’s Greg Chandler, Krater have gone full-force to deliver a great work for the ages with Venenare. The only hurdle is resisting its spellbinding pull…
Tracklisting for Krater (Germany)’s Venenare:
1. Eruption
2. Prayer for Demise
3. Zwischen den Worten
4. Stellar Sparks
5. When Thousand Hearts
6. Atmet Asche
7. No Place for You
8. Darvaza Breeds
9. Wasted Carbon
Press release courtesy of Suspicious Activities PR
