Rare when a band lays out its career intentions and doesn’t hide being the mask of delusion. Too often we’re lambasted with the atypical, “Our goal is world domination” quote, only to have the band in question sputter and fizzle out. Wouldn’t it be easier to start with a modest goal and work from there? Better yet, how about lowering the bar altogether? For Switzerland’s Kruger, the bar is about as low as a limbo line.
Currently making the press and live show rounds in support of their excellent For Death, Glory, and the End of the World, Kruger vocalist Reno makes no bones about the band’s not-so lofty goals: they are perfectly comfortable blending into the post-metal landscape. With For Death…, the band does just that, emerging as the timely blend between Isis, Cult of Luna, and Ghost Brigade, all rolled into one compact, but brutal Swiss offering. Kruger had better be careful though, a few more albums like this and they might have to up their goal a few notches, but Reno wasn’t having any of that, as he would go onto to tell Blistering…
Blistering.com: So, For Death, Glory, and the End of the World is your third album. Is now the right time to strike for Kruger?
Reno: It’s our fourth album, actually! The first one was kind of a good demo, out in early 2002. The band is now 10 years old, and I guess we wouldn't have bet we would go all this way, when we started in 2000!
Blistering.com: Redemption Through Looseness did go a long way toward establishing the band, but For Death... should push you guys to the next level. Is that the prevailing thought at the moment?
Reno: Not a second - our career plans are non-existent; we are now at the "level" that fits us perfectly: having a (very) little name across Europe, which allows us to make a few weeks tours a year without too much difficulties, and having a label that puts out the albums we record... what more should we want? We don't really have the fantasy to tour six months a year, and become Isis or Mastodon. The way we are doing right now preserves the amazing enthusiasm we have to do all we do with the band, and allows us to enjoy every gig without question - it could not be better!
Blistering.com: Your sound is decidedly Swedish, but you’re Swiss. Do you often find the band being mislabeled as such?
Reno: I feel our previous album (Redemption...) was a lot more Swedish-like, wasn't it? Sweden is not the worst country to be mistaken with… a very large part of our heroes is Swedish, to start with Breach of Entombed. I wish Switzerland had that many good bands (both countries have pretty much the same population).
Blistering.com: Does your geographic locale help you in a way, develop your own identity?
Reno: Identity, I don’t think so, although we have nice godfathers here, like Celtic Frost, The Young Gods or Knut. I feel being stuck in small Switzerland makes you really want to move abroad, and this makes the "Swiss export" pretty good as it's kind of a struggle to get out of this too small country...
Blistering.com: What is your take on the whole “metalgaze” or “post-metal” scene? Any bands out there that you can identify with?
Reno: Denominations are changing every couple of years, it's so funny. “Metalcore,” then "sludgecore,” and "post-this" and finally "post-that"... "metalgaze" is one I never heard before, though! Well, to my personal taste, much of this scene is terribly boring, I prefer Isis's The Red Sea to their latest progressive-ambient albums. Some do good, of course (Old Man Gloom, Mono, Year of No Light are great), but I like it a bit more brutal, even if Kruger has some quieter parts.
Blistering.com: Going into For Death... what was the goal? It seems like you’ve simply expanded upon everything you’ve done before.
Reno: I would say we're worked better and longer on the recording and arrangements, this is the main difference, in my opinion, with our previous album, which was dirtier and more straight to the point. It’s difficult to really have hindsight... fine if people think we are improving!
Blistering.com: Any reason why it took three years to get this one out?
Reno: Just because we're grotesquely slow! Writing songs is painful, since we don't have any protocol to do it... we've been touring a lot in 2008/2009 and can't tour AND write at the same time. Was there any hurry, though?
Blistering.com: If anything, the use of melody on “Villains” is something that really works in your favor. Was it a concerted effort to do more melodic stuff?
Reno: I’ve worked more on the vocal harmonies, and we had some help from a friend do have much more classy samples layers; I think both these aspects have highlighted the guitars very melodic riffing we've always had...
Blistering.com: The album centerpiece has to be “Our Cemetery is Full of Strangers,” which is probably your best song to date. Can you elaborate upon this one?
Reno : Ha-ha, it's the one I like the less on the album! We used to call it "the long boring one" before we got a title. There are some good parts, but the too Cult of Luna-esque ambient aspect is boring me a bit. There are rare bands that are able to maintain intensity in such songs, and I’m not so sure we're one of them... if we are, that's a relief, thanks!
Blistering.com: About the title album – it’s pretty grandiose, so is there a deeper meaning behind it?
Reno: We usually try to have abstract titles, as we fear sooooo much to be considered as a conceptual, serious, metal band; since it never works anyway, we've decided to be as clichés as we could, and chose that empathic title for once. Sometimes it's good to stop fighting against your own nature, isn’t' it?
Blistering.com: How did the Gojira connection happen on “Muscle?”
Reno: Joe [Duplantier, guitars/vocals] is a friend, and likes us almost as much as we like Gojira - he did not really have anything to do at the time, except being the support for Metallica, so he spent a few hours for us to record a few vocal parts!
Blistering.com: You have some tour dates lined up for the fall in Europe. Any hopes/expectations for it?
Reno: We can't wait! It’s been a long time (we just had two new dads in the band), and hitting the road again is extraordinarily exciting , no matter where we play! Big venues, crappy basements, in your living room, in a stadium... anything is cool!
Blistering.com: Finally, what’s in store for the rest of the year and 2011?
Reno: Play this album live until death and/or senility!
