Koronal

Summing up KORONAL’s debut album Flicker Away quick and to the point, the band is celebrating their “baptism of fire” with a strongly rounded release what is usually a thing of a band that has quite a few experiments under their belt. While this may come off as music industry lip-service in honour of the Polish quintet, anyone who has heard Flicker Away will find it impossible not to become completely enthralled by the music within the space of the first listen. The band's take on progressive metal accompanied with death metal and djent already sees KORONAL as a Polish answer to Meshuggah. On the album KORONAL managed to put the aforementioned elements in a package that is more accessible. Founder and guitarist Piotr Chmielecki says that the idea about KORONAL bloomed in his head as a “hazy vision for years.” “I just wanted to do something interesting, possibly fresh, with a large dose of energy that cumulate somewhere in my head. The rest is just coincidence of positive circumstances and working with the right people,” he recalls. KORONAL’s lyrics on Flicker Away match the depth and intensity of their music. "The main theme is the universe but mostly in a philosophical sense. Lyrics contain metaphors and describe the human weakness as pride or vanity. The Earth and humans are like dust in all this vastness that surrounds us." The album art for Flicker Away, as well as the animation for the lead single off of the album, "Usurper," were done by Magnus Jonsson. "He worked with Meshuggah previously, so we knew that it should be great and so it is. Great job and a great idea for the video as well," Chmielecki comments. Flicker Away is quite an exciting discovery as it allows a keener sense of attention to be paid to what the band are actually getting up to in the instrument department. There is a huge ground the band covers through the instrumentation what is well rounded with vocals by, now former vocalist, Piotr Zurawski. Guitarists Piotr Chmielecki and Przemyslaw Terlik do a fair interchange of heavy and groovy riffs along with solos that are mostly slow-paced. The rhythm section comprised of Patryk Malinowski on bass and Mateusz Sawicki on drums amazes nothing less, and for the music KORONAL makes their share if of huge importance. Flicker Away is stunningly beautiful and filled with a dark energy that is often hard to find in the copycat genre in which KORONAL are boundary pushers. This album is perfect for those in need of a fast and furious djent fix with the occasional unexpected interlude that will take you by surprise. For fans of: Meshuggah, Decapitated, Tool, Vildhjarta KORONAL - new metal band from Poland.