Photo by Emerson Hunton

The sound of Krill is almost as anomalistic as their namesake (as they once described it, it’s the “most diminutive form of a sea monster,”) being a hashed out clanker of stop-and-go guitar shards and burly drums fielded in long division form of shifty time signatures. We’ve been long-missing it for a decade now, however. That is, until this week.

The modern day Bostonian DIY scene heroes are back to play in their stomping grounds at this weekend’s NICE Fest, and they’re bringing along new music — as well as a new member — with them, as frontman / bassist Jonah Furman and drummer Ian Becker are now joined by Moontype guitarist Andrew Clinkman on their first new music since their 2016 self-titled swan song with the single “Commemorative Plaque”.

Furman’s voice remains lazily twisted and ugly, often carelessly tripping its footing around the lackadaisical tempo at which the three-piece play in this instance. It’s subdued but not entirely a quieter version of Krill, as multi-instrumental Macie Stewart and Will Greene beautify the holes between noiseboards with violin and sax. “I have said what I have to say / And I don’t know what any of it meant / But if it helps you, use it,” he sings almost epitaphically, and yet, it suggests a new, aged and weathered chapter to their forever.

Krill’s “Commemorative Plaque” single is available now on Exploding In Sound Records.