Six years after their debut album Rituals and a year after their split-release with Feral, the Swedish death/crust band Crawl are making a rampaging return with their second full-length Altar of Disgust, which is set for release on May 3rd by Transcending Obscurity Records.
In listening to the new album, the phrase “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” comes to mind, because Crawl still revel in delivering ugly, adrenaline-fueled mayhem and skull-busting punishment, steeped in an atmosphere of ghastly horror and well in line with a rich tradition of Swedish-style, punk-influenced death metal.
But that’s not to say that Crawl have stood still since their debut album. While still unmistakably a Crawl release, the songwriting is more nuanced and more adventurous, and as Transcending Obscurity correctly previews, they’ve brought a bit of blackening into the mix here and there as well.
What we have for you today is the premiere of the fourth song to be revealed so far from Altar of Disgust, and the name of this one is “Throne Of Molten Bones“.
A whole hell of a lot happens in this compact new song — and we do mean Hell, because it’s like a whirlwind tour of diabolical horrors, and one guaranteed to send circle pits whirling too.
The changes happen fast across all the instruments. The drums quickly veer from blasting cannonades to d-beat scampering, hulking stomps, buoyant bouncing, off-kilter beats, and headlong gallops, with plenty of riotous fills erupting into view.
Meanwhile, the filth-encrusted riffing changes too, and includes boiling and bloody froths of insanity, bursts of vicious slashing mayhem, sounds of brutish pounding and miserable moaning, jolting jackhammer fests, and flurries of bounce-off-the-wall exuberance, all of it accented by screeching reverberations and eerily wailing tones.
The hellish horrors radiate from the gravel-gargling vocals as well, which range from enraged howls to spectacles of bone-gnawing voraciousness, macabre gang cries, and choking grunts.
The energy is high, the grooves are gutting, ghastliness reigns supreme, bones splinter, and the blood-spray flies. What’s not to like?
LINE-UP:
Joachim Lyngfelt (ex-Decomposed) – Vocals
Martin Sjögren – Guitars
Ämir Batar (ex-Demonical) – Drums
Ragnar Hedtjärn Ullenius – Bass
Transcending Obscurity will release Altar of Disgust, blessed by suitably horrifying cover art by Sam D Larsson, on vinyl LP, cassette tape, CD, and digital formats, with a ton of related apparel and other merch. T.O. recommends the album for fans of Entrails, Dismember, Feral, Grave, Bloodbath, Lik, Black Breath, and Vomitheist.
Check out the offerings via the links below, and also lend a mangled ear to the streams we’ve provided for three previously released album tracks — “Until They Crawl“, “Knives“, and “Undead Crypts“.
PRE-ORDER:
https://crawldeath.bandcamp.com/album/altar-of-disgust
http://transcendingobscurity.aisamerch.com/
CRAWL:
http://facebook.com/CRAWLSWE