Crawl - Rituals

This is the kind of Metal music rare to find these days. Crawl are a great reminder of the good old days how a killer extreme metal band should be. Add a punk attitude with some Death Metal ferocious blast beats. No keyboards, no soprano singers, no symphonic parts or whatever. Simply an angry vocalist with some fuzzy guitars and a blasting bass. Not to mention the thundering drums. No need for songs with more than three minutes. Actually, only “Coven of Servants” is longer than four minutes. The others have an average of two and a half minutes. “Rituals” is as gentle as a punch in the face.

There is some time I don’t hear a band that uses so much that resource of having a blast of microphones as Crawl. Though, this effect is very common to punk bands, specially when they play alive. It’s not only a sound effect, but also a manifest. Crawl are saying to the world that everything sucks and there is no healthier thing than playing in a Metal band. Can you hear it? I can. It’s beneath each song. Kind of a subliminal thing. In case you haven’t noticed, there are no choruses in “Rituals,” I mean not that singing along kind. It’s the raw deal and pretty direct as life is. No one pities you in this sad and lonely planet.

Crawl got exactly what Metal is, a bunch of guys playing with all the wrath and fury as they can, blaming all the world for their misfortune and pain. Anything more Metal than this? I guess not. But I guess raw isn’t the exact word for the music Crawl make. I’d rather say straight-ahead and furious. “Rituals” is a thirtysomething minute piece where the guys put all the anger they had. So much anger. Crawl took anger to another level.

Crawl “Rituals” was released on August 20th via Transcending Obscurity Records.

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