Interview: Krallice’s Colin Marston on Scour Order & More
I sat down with the one and only Colin M’arston to talk all things Krallice! [Em’phasis m’y own ~Roldy]
Falx: After almost 20 years and 15 studio albums, how would you describe Krallice today for any newcomers?
Colin Marston: This will be album 16 for us. And I guess with the 4 EPs, it’s our 20th release of new music in 19 years. I would describe us as “Krallice: we drown you in quantity.”
Did you go into this new album with a particular goal in mind, or do you consider it another step in the band’s development?
CM: The music for the new album was commissioned by the fine folks at the Roadburn Festival. It coincides with us returning to our old instrumentation, so it feels like a step backward and a step forward at once. We didn’t discuss any particular direction musically and just let things take shape naturally.
Everyone familiar with Krallice can always expect something wild or unorthodox, has this become something you’re actively avoiding at the songwriting and production phase, or it just happens as it goes along?
CM: Sometimes I think I’m writing music that’s more traditional or derivative, but it usually ends up sounding more unorthodox. We all write music very intuitively and each of us have our own personal idiosyncrasies when writing music for Krallice; production and recording-wise our band couldn’t be more straightforward though: We typically record live and don’t polish or fix things as much as the average metal band. We don’t do lots of overdubs and generally keep the mixes pretty basic. Hopefully that lets the music and songs themselves be presented without much distraction.
Reaching the 2 decade milestone is something a lot of bands don’t achieve, let alone with an extensive body of work like yours, is this something you were hoping for, or between composing, producing and performing did the 2 decades just fly by?
CM: The years have definitely just flown by. Krallice wasn’t even supposed to be a band at first… just a record to make for fun. No ambitions of making more music or playing live at all. But it quickly became a real band and accidentally ended up being one of the most important parts of my life!
Mick, McMaster and Lev are the best bandmates I could ask for and we have a lot of fun hanging out and working on challenging music.
Scour Order has had the second longest gap between Krallice albums, with the longest being post-COVID, was this intentional or did you want to take more time making the record?
CM: Actually I think the longest gap in releases we had was between Years Past Matter in 2012 and Ygg Huur in 2015. Other than that 3-year gap, I think we’ve never gone more than two years between releases of new music. Inorganic Rites was 2024, No Hope was 2025, and now we are at Scour Order in 2026. This new album was made pretty fast even by our standards since we needed to have it ready for Roadburn earlier this year. We started working on it in fall or winter of 2025, and then recorded it right before we flew to Roadburn in April of 2026.
Following up on that, with so many side-projects between bandmates, how do you know what material is appropriate for Krallice, or how do you decide?
CM: Speaking for myself, I always have a clear idea in mind of what band I’m writing for when I compose music. I know it’s not always like that for Mick, but I’m not the kind of person who just writes riffs and then figures out what they’re for later. I always set out to write a particular song for a particular group, so for me there’s no decision-making process after I start coming up with ideas. I basically never even pick up and play the guitar if I’m not writing music for a particular project or practicing music that’s already been written for an album or show. Synths and drums have been the only instruments that I’ve just been playing for fun over the last 6 or so years.
You’re also one of the few bands that has managed to have a single stable lineup for over a decade, after that long a time, are your goals and ambitions for Krallice still aligned, or has each band member managed to accomplish their own goals through Krallice?
CM: Yeah, I guess it’s been all 4 of us for 18 years now! Maybe one of the reasons we’ve stuck together all these years is that we don’t have goals or ambitions for Krallice other than having fun making music together. Every now and then we get a bug to play shows or tour, or work with a label, but those things have never been the main focus… more of a bonus when we get our shit together.
Has the songwriting process changed after 20 years, or has it always been an evolving process?
CM: We have experimented with quite a few ways of writing music together. Our most typical method involves either me, Mick, or McMaster presenting a song on our own instrument and then the rest of us contributing our own parts and then collectively refining the arrangement and orchestration at practice. But there have been anomalies like Demonic Wealth, Mass Cathexis 2 – The Kinetic Infinite, some of the Wolf EP, where one of us takes charge and writes more than just a couple songs or just our own part. We also have tried various instrumentations: 2 guitars, bass, drums; 1 guitar, keys, bass, 2 drum kits; 2 guitars, synth bass, drums… I can’t wait to try 4 synths with no guitars or drums!
20 years is enough time to have a band legacy, is that something you have thought about?
CM: I guess I’m not exactly sure what that means… but if we’re talking about leaving something behind in the world, I’d say the amount of music we’ve created is of much more significance than how many years we’ve stayed together as a band. I’m proud of the work we’ve done, the challenges we’ve given ourselves, and the unreasonable amount of fun we’ve had along the way.
Is Krallice at a place you’re satisfied with, or do you feel there’s more to do with the band?
Both! I’m more than satisfied with what we’ve done, but that’s no reason to not keep going as long as we’re inspired and having a good time. I’m very curious to see where we go next.
What inspired you for this particular album, and are you inspired by other artforms besides music?
CM: It’s always hard to say what inspires the creation of music. For me, the instrument I’m writing on tends to be the main inspiration. But also my life has changed in such a major way over the last two years, leaving New York City, floating for a year, and then moving to the first rural environment I’ve ever lived in. I love being surrounded by trees and mountains now instead of millions of people. Where I live now isn’t that remote, but definitely FAR less crowded than Queens. I love it!
In terms of other art-forms besides music, I’m probably the most interested in movies, especially sci-fi/horror, abstract slow movies of any style, and REALLY terrible inept movies made by people who clearly have little understanding of what they are doing.
What’s next for Krallice after this album, can people expect a surprise album or is this the end of two albums a year?
CM: There won’t be a 2nd album THIS year, but that doesn’t mean never again! We are doing our first European tour this October/November and I’m really looking forward to it.
