THE CRAWLING

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There’s some great titles on this album and one is ‘An Immaculate Deception’ that possesses some tough and twisting rhythms with a deep dark grunting vocal that you can feel in your gut as it rips your intestines out! Moving on to the next track ‘Poison Orange’ I can almost hear the band laughing when they thought up this track title, but also can feel the harshness brooding as it plays out and leaks its venomous liquid through its vicious assault, and this is without being played fast. ‘Acid on my Skin’ speaks volumes from its title and will have you believe that it is toxic and caustic and of course you would be right to believe as its abrasive mark is made with a very potent vocal and large slices of darkened rhythms. ‘All Our Failings’ is a very imposing track that holds a lot of insatiable bait. It begins fast and then slows down to reveal that it can’t make up its mind if it wants to move faster or slower so you just have to go along with the flow, however, the track contain...

Anatomy of Loss is the debut full-length from The Crawling, a trio of death/doomers hailing from Lisburn, Northern Ireland. The melancholy stylings of classic Paradise Lost are strong influences here, so you should have a good idea of what to expect. There isn’t anything groundbreaking about Anatomy of a Loss, but lyrics, tone, and instrumentation all come together to create a solid expression of mourning as expressed in the album’s title and the “dedicated to” section of the liner notes. Guitarist Andy Clarke does a good job of blending tremolo death riffs, single-note doom riffs, and dissonant chord progressions, making for songs that are varied enough to stay interesting without losing the depressing, bleak edge that is the album’s theme.  “All Our Failings” and a few other sections get a bit groovy, which throws off the downcast vibe a bit, and there are a few transitions that are slightly jarring, but highlights like “An Immaculate Deception” and a re-recorded version of...

Anatomy of Loss is all about mixing black metal vocals & that feeling of cold isolation with doom-laden riffs & beats. An Immaculate Deception brings all those sounds & adds a dirty, raw sound resulting in a strong opener. Let down only by its length, it gets a bit repetitive after a while. Poison Orange is a serious cut above though, its riffs dipped in the blackest tar & vocals ripped straight out of the devil’s mouth. This is some seriously doom-heavy stuff & even when things are sped up it just results in an even harder sound. What makes Anatomy of Loss such a surprising listen though is the variety in music on show. Acid on my Skin has a lovely upbeat melody only changing stance to a heavier effort during the choruses. It’s got some of the best drumming on the entire album & the vocals are simply amazing here. A hell of a song, a hell of an album. The variety continues with the stunning All Our Failings & The Right to Crawl. A duo that keep things me...

Before I go to sleep at night, reading is typically the last thing I do. The current book is Don't Try This At Home by Dave Navarro. There was a conversation in that book about Steve Vai . Mr. Vai is a very divisive figure in the musical world. That's not to be meant as an insult. It's just that there are a few camps here. Many folks, even some instrumental bands I've interviewed, have said how do you connect to Steve Vai? The prevailing opinion amongst them is that Vai is simply flexing his muscles for 90 minutes each night. Well this is something that a goodly number of metal bands do each night. There's the constant blast beats that run concurrently with the unchanging demonic vocals. Distort the bass from note one and what we have is a preening tosser on the beach. For the record, anyone who thinks that about Steve Vai simply hasn't heard, they may have listened, but haven't heard. Anyway, The Cawling hail from one of the four countries in the United...

ANATOMY OF LOSS is the debut album from the semi-sober Irish death metal band THE CRAWLING. A promising band with an even more promising album. After the release of their three track EP IN LIGHT OF DARK DAYS, I have been looking forward to hearing this record. In terms of style and sound, this album is very much more of the same. There is a vast selection of death metal riffing, each one being as catchy as the other thanks to having more emphasis on the rhythm rather then following the idiotic trend of how fast and extreme they could play. When the group aren’t thrashing out on their instruments, they are playing slow heavy chords that is best described as doom metal. These songs start off slow (a little too slow for my personal taste) and had they been a little longer, they would have been a little tedious. But THE CRAWLING seem to have enough common sense to realise that each song requires a good hook and just when things slow down, they burst into life with some mean riff. Both st...

This is a new experience to me but as soon as I randomly start listening to 'An Immaculate Deception & 'Acid On My Skin' I'm fuckin' excited 'cause this is hard hitting quality doom metal but at the same time it does not leave you waiting for world doom part 3. It's aggressive,punchy,catchy and all you want from a good album really,I forgot to mention brutal 'cause it is at times ,like a mix of death metal and doom metal, I guess it depends on how you see it. Anyways, 'Anatomy Of Loss' is suitable for most occations, I'm having a small party now and when I out out of a sudden decided to try this one the party suddenly moved to the next level and everybpdy seeems satisfied. What you get is 7 long lasting tracks from 5-9 mins and value for every penney, and by the way it's spinning for the second time now by popular demand. The Crawling is a band who knows what they do and leave nothing to coincidences, it's professionally excecut...