Jorge Elbrecht Coral Cross

Coral Cross is the first release of a new metal project helmed by Jorge Elbrecht (Lansing-Dreiden, Haunted Graffiti, Violens). Described by Elbrecht as “choral thrash,” the music is simultaneously blurry and fast paced, blistering single-note guitar lines layered over with barely-audible cathedral harmonies. It’s another turn stylistically, following both his collaborations with Ariel Pink (“Hang On to Life” and “Called to Ring”) and the electronic A/B-side with Chairlift’s Caroline Polachek. The first track “The Coldest Steel Across Your Face Slides” rips forward with a meat-slicing, bay area thrash-style intro riff, recalling bands like Exodus or Testament, but with much less attention to production detail. Instead, some passages on Coral Cross – 001 sound like they may have been recorded on a portable cassette recorder. B-side “With a Lancet” follows more of a pop song format, with a chorus that dives into depths of depressive tremolo-picking guitars and drums that strobe and flicker like a decapitated airplane propeller post-crash.