Artist: Krolok
Country: Slovakia
Label: Osmose Productions
Formats: LP / Cassette tape / CD
Year: 2026
Five years after the band released ‘Funeral Winds & Crimson Sky’ on Osmose Productions, Krolok returns with yet another album. On this third full-length the Slovakians take us further back in a journey along their Carpathian roots. Entirely in theme with this, the lyrics for ‘Hričov – Súľov – Lietava’ are entirely in their mother tongue. While that obviously complicates understanding the content for the average listener, musically the album certainly has a thematical feeling. While first and foremost this is an overall feeling from listening to the record, certainly this seems to be conveyed in the locations in the album title as well. Take for instance ‘Pod Skalnou Bránou’, a song that is flanked by the tracks ‘Hričov’ and ‘Súľov. ‘Pod Skalnou Bránou’ can be translated to ‘Beneath the Rock Gate’, and this seems to refer to the Gotická brána, a nature-shaped gate formation in the Súľov rocks located precisely between those earlier mentioned locations. So while the exact lyrical content might be left to the imagination, at least we can imagine where these folkloric tales took place.
With this more theme-based approach comes also a slightly more atmospheric musical emphasis, with some Folk elements, a bit more bombast and an increased sense of melancholy to the album. But rest assured, the band has still clearly maintained the identity of the previous records. It’s especially that galloping style, the blend of the old Czechoslavakian Black Metal bands with old Satyricon and Bathory that still remains the unifying appeal of the music. Like on the previous album, the band has opted for a more simple song structure to create more striking and catchy tracks. This approach was already evident on the previous record, so in many ways it feels like a very direct continuation of ‘Funeral Winds & Crimson Sky’, just with an even deeper thematic connection to the band’s roots.
That the band has stayed close to their musical formula and enhanced the roots of their past makes ‘Hričov – Súľov – Lietava’ an incredibly easy album to embrace. It’s simply more of the same, stunningly good music. Although they have adopted some elements of them, they still remain distinctly different from their country mates of Malokarpatan and Stangarigel, all coexisting in their own, high quality representation of the history of Slovakia.
