Krokodil

Photo of Jake Himelfarb and Aaron Lawrence engaged
in the creative process, courtesy of Krokodil

Though the rock scene is more splintered than ever, and it seems too often that metal is simply co-opted for trendy aesthetics, there are still some whose idea of a good time is that sweet heavy metal goodness. Krokodil—named after the flesh-eating drug—offers hard death metal with a cozy old school feel, and a contagious onstage sense of fun sets them apart from other local metalheads.

Singer-guitarist Jake Himelfarb particularly has a penchant for giving the audience something to remember: from mooning the crowd on multiple occasions, to alleging to an audience that he self-bleached his rectum in the parking lot prior to the show, to licking and munching on a bloody tampon that threw itself onstage at one show at the Cobalt Café. 

“His antics bring life to our death-ridden sound,” says drummer Devlin Baldwin.

Says Lumberjack of Vengeance for the Fallen, "Krokodil is one of the few bands to gross me out. Two huge horns up for that accomplishment alone! Black metal mixed with shock value mixed with a total disregard for personal health... it doesn't get any more metal than that."

"I must say that Krokodil jams out some real quality death metal," says longtime Krokodil concert-goer and fan, Sarah Schönberger. "Their stage performance is also extremely entertaining, and something is always bound to go down, especially with such a stupid-ass fan base."

The band draws from a variety of musical influences, including black metal, death metal, old school heaviness, old jazz and some other genres. While their music writing process initiates as fairly independent, the band collaborates more closely as songs develop.

“We’re all pretty musical people and the fact we’ve all got input into our songs is a really big part of how our songs come out,” says bassist Aaron Lawrence. “I draw different things from different bassists… everyone brings something different to the table and I try to learn from all of it.” Says Baldwin of music in general, he loves "literally everything about it and what comes with it. It is what gets me out of bed in the morning and what carries me to bed at night. Being able to create my own music has only brought me to love it more."

“It's really satisfying to see the songs you spent hours making and even more rehearsing come to life onstage, and then to see people's reactions to that creation that I worked so hard on making,” says Himelfarb. “It makes every little frustration in being in a band, writing music and playing guitar worth it.” 

Adds Lawrence, “I love playing live, especially when everything’s tight and everyone’s firing on all cylinders. It’s always fun being able to act like an idiot in front of people for a half hour. But what really makes gigs fun is when the crowd has fun. That’s a weird sort of energy that connects the whole room and aside from just loving to play music in general, that connection is what makes the shows so special.”

“We get up there and do our best to play our songs well and whatever happens, happens,” says Baldwin. “Being up there with two of the funniest dudes I know is super fun. Jake brings the autism while Aaron and I hit it heavy with our rhythmic sexiness. If, by the end of our set, I see people with smiles on their faces, I know we've done our job.”

Krokodil is playing the Cobalt Café this Saturday night, March 29^th at 8:00.

Photo courtesy of Krokodil