It’s no secret that I absolutely love Kavrila. But so far in my previous reviews, I never quite explained how the love story began. With their latest EP reissue comes the perfect opportunity to look back at my tortured relationship with my former Hamburg neighbors.
I discovered this raw little gem when I lived in Hamburg, during 1000Mods’ spectacular gig at the Knust. The opening act? A local band whose stickers I’d already seen on our dodgy rehearsal space’s doors. Naively, I was expecting some fairly traditional stoner rock. Instead, I was hit right in the gut with a massive dose of violence and nihilism. I’ll admit, it did not fit with the wave of coolness we got that evening, but the very next day, I started an in-depth listening of their first two EPs “Rituals I” and “Rituals II”, as well as their debut album “Blight”.
They got me hooked. Now, three EPs, two albums and a few rare shows in Germany later, my favorite German dark sludgers are back, with the first act of a new trilogy of EPs: “Heretics I”.
To truly understand Kavrila, you must know what it’s like to spend eight months a year in the rain and cold in the city that hosted the rise of the Beatles, yet gets constantly pushed into the cultural shadows of its neighbor, Berlin. Hamburg is a city where working-class districts are Germany’s biggest squat and political asylum. A city that hosts the progressive St. Pauli FC, Röte Flora, where street art is everywhere and rock shows happen every night, including the Turbojugend world festival. But it’s also a city where the political leaders are replacing said neighborhoods with super posh areas, and which is home to Europe’s most expensive classical concert hall: the Elbphilharmonie. A prosperous yet divided city whose elitism is matched only by the sunshine reflection off the inland lake (the Alster), while its working classes bear the brunt of an alienating German economic policy.
Creating music in Hamburg means rejecting the festive and psychedelic side of Berlin to better confront the harshness of life in all its shades of gray as shown by most of Kavrila’s album covers. It’s about having a DIY aesthetic and a desire to play uncompromising, nihilistic and powerful music, without wanting to neglect its influences, including the cheesiest ones (yes, we see you Germans throwing a little kitschy heavy metal everywhere). It’s no surprise that the post-hardcore and sludge genres have had such a strong impact on the city, giving birth to a band at the crossroads of these genres.
To embrace its punk background, Kavrila has turned up all the knobs even further than ever before. Recorded entirely on an old 4-track, “Heretics I” leaves no room for frills. One track for the guitar, one for the bass, one for the drums, and one for the vocals. That’s it. The result is of rare power and intensity, smashing our heads with this grungy lo-fi feel along riffs firmly rooted in post-hardcore. Quite frankly, it sounds like an old black metal album… if black metalheads knew how to write sophisticated songs. The vocals are primarily screamed as always, but with a single take to record the entire EP, their vulnerability has never sounded clearer. At any time, the voice could break and everything would stop. And if you know a better definition of sludge music than this, I’m all ears.
With four tracks clocking in at barely fifteen minutes, the album starts pedal to the metal. We’re captivated by the mix that allows each instrument to breathe. “Embers” kicks off in the purest post-hardcore tradition with roared lyrics. The sumptuous segue on the ride cymbal into the very moody and grungy “Chains” is a feast for the ears. Yet, your eardrums are quickly assaulted by dissonant and dark guitar leads. “Petrified” might be the most punk and fastest track on the EP, yet its 100% dissonant bridge gives it a very noise rock aura. In the meantime, “Ascend” adds a pleasant touch of doom sludge and post-metal to their already diverse list of influences. Can’t you hear a bit of Brutus on this track?
Kavrila opens a new chapter with this new trilogy. Always forging their path without worrying about trends, constantly questioning their approach without ever questioning their art itself, they continue to shine with authenticity and the infectious intensity of their production. “Heretics” is written in the plural form, so let’s embrace the fact that we are all mad, as long as we can enjoy this soundtrack during our mental breakdown.
ARTIST: Kavrila
ALBUM: Heretics I
RELEASED: 28 March 2025
GENRE: Sludge punk
LABEL: Supreme Chaos Records
MORE: Bandcamp
Last modified: 22 April 2025
