Skip to main content

CD review: 'Anatomy Of Loss' - Worship Metal

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 “The Right to Crawl” are well composed and feature killer riffs that will lodge themselves in your brain. The airy riffing in “Violence Vanity and Neglect” leaves room for Stuart Rainey’s bouncing bass line, and it’s a nasty combination.

Gary Beattie’s drumming is excellent, alternating between pummeling rhythms and deft fills that are sprayed like bullets. Clarke and Rainey both handle vocal duties. They both employ a fairly typical death metal growl and often combine their voices for an even thicker roar, which works very well. The lyricism is solid – these guys have clearly been through some rough times and express it in a less-than-subtle manner that still comes off as mature.

Anatomy of Loss is enjoyably morose but leaves a listener longing for a bit more. However, The Crawling will be worth keeping an eye on. 

7/10

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

LIVE review: Bloodstock 2016 - The Moshville Times

After hearing the last few songs of XII boar, I meandered over to the New Blood tent to catch the last bit of The Crawling (8) . Having a kind of doom sound mixed with death metal vocals, I was suitably impressed by them. The crowd present for them seemed to be too with a lot of folk banging their heads or fist pumping the air. Bloodstock 2016 – Friday (James’s view) The Moshville Times

CD review: 'Anatomy Of Loss' - Ram zine

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...

CD review: 'Anatomy Of Loss' - Skullfukker

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...