Review: Krig – Bite My Byte
Review: Krig – Bite My Byte
Progressive death metal cult icons Krig are back, and with their latest release, Bite My Byte, absolutely unleash their disgust and anger on a world dominated by technology that is sucking the very lifeblood out of it; at least, that’s how I see it. Well, sign me up, I’m here for it.
In my view, few things have become more soul-crushing in modern life than the continual disconnect and isolation caused by what was all sold as a way to be more connected, more informed, and less isolated. But this is exactly what we’ve often ended up with in the age of “social” media, and it is only continuing with the onslaught of soulless AI (I’m not a fan of its influence at all, though Seth Metoyer here at Heaven’s Metal has a few different and balanced takes on the issue here and here). With Krig’s newest album, I feel like I’ve found a band that understands how I feel about it all, and have felt about it, for quite some time. Perhaps you feel the same way too. And yet here I am, a hypocrite – indebted to the internet and social media for being able to hear them in the first place, and write about it! Truly, it’s an odd time.
Known for their hyper-technical and violent approach to brutal death metal that is as heavy as it is strange, Krig are probably one of the most underrated death metal bands out there. Bite My Byte is just the latest album in an already extensive discography spanning all the way back to 2007 and their debut entitled Feed Me, and is every bit as extreme as you may have come to expect. Led by the core duo of Isaque and Jully Soares, Bite My Byte is the first album by the band to not feature long-time vocalist Daniell Corpse, replaced instead by Zack Glaeser.
Longtime fans of the band won’t be disappointed, be assured of that. The same kind of angular yet chunky and powerful riffing is present and accounted for here, with Isaque Soares deftly welding brutality and melody together with seamless effect. I do find myself missing the deep gutturals of Daniell Corpse, however. While Zack Glaeser is more than a proficient vocalist, his style sounds more like a mix of what you’d expect from a deathcore/slam vocalist sometimes, hitting raspy highs and gurgling lows all in the matter of a few words (think a mix of Brook Reeves meets Mitch Lucker meets Luke Renno). It works, but the feel of the album sometimes gives much more of a brutal deathcore vibe than a death metal one. Regardless of a bit of a style shift in my view, Krig still remains as dazzlingly technical as ever. The music is mechanistic, yet possessed of soul and vigour, jarring and chaotic yet very intentional.
Of course, what stands out to me are the lyrics. Conceptually, Krig has never been a band to simply dwell on spiritual topics; rather, they apply their beliefs to various social concerns. Krig’s focus seems to be on the dehumanization of humanity, and with Bite My Byte, this dehumanization ultimately comes from modern technology and those who control it; in effect, it’s an attack on a kind of synthetic life of satanic self-absorption and soul-numbing distraction. Just feast on these lyrics:
“High doses of dopamine
Injected virtually into your brain,
Just by scrolling down the screen,
Leading many to a depressive state.”
or
“Burning down IQ en masse,
Mechanization thinks for individuals
Stripping away personality,
Leading to mental health collapse.
Instant gratification creates an artificial world.
Brain on a leash,
Setting up depression,
Influencing what to wish.”
or
“A monopolized form of speech.
Adapt to the new rules.
Stay addicted to the platform,
Giving in from within.”
Overall, Krig’s latest release is quality stuff, though I’m not personally huge on the stylistic shift towards a more deathcore-ish sound on some tracks (no breakdowns, but they’re definitely sounding a little more like a hyper-technical deathcore act at times here). Lyrically, Bite my Byte will either give you lots of food for thought to chew on, or simply help you breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that others out there feel the same way about the constant barrage of social media, advertising, and nightmarish AI. At its core, Bite my Byte is a solid technical and progressive death metal record that easily matches any others out there, and proves, yet again, why Krig are a criminally underrated act.
For Fans Of: Archspire, Beneath the Massacre, Taking the Head of Goliath, Dehumanize, I Built the Cross, Atrocity (CA)
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