Misanthropic-Art‘s cover image for a new split by the Swedish death metal bands Feral and Crawl is decrepit, decaying, and haunting, but also molten, an image of ancient regal grandeur now cracked, strangled by roots sprung from the earth, and littered with skulls of the dead, but something not of the earth pours forth from the eye of an obelisk.
It’s a fitting image for a split by two bands who honor the now seemingly ancient and unhealthy powers of Swedish death metal but in ways that still make it sound molten. Both bands released hellishly good albums five years ago (Feral‘s Flesh for Funerals Eternal and Crawl‘s Rituals), and the split marks a very welcome return, with each band contributing two new songs.
The split is entitled Made As Those Who Are No Longer Alive, Transcending Obscurity Records will release it on September 5th, and what we’re bringing you today is the debut of the second of Crawl‘s two songs — “Vanity“.
Vanity, sometimes called pride (which some say goeth before the fall), is one of the seven deadly sins, and of course is one of the hallmarks of the churches that proclaimed it as such. It can be defined as the excessive belief in one’s own abilities or attractiveness to others, but prior to the 14th century it did not have such narcissistic undertones, and merely meant… futility. (So says The Font of All Human Knowledge.)
The song given the name by Crawl is a sub-two-minute ravager — raging and ruinous, belligerent and brawling. It flips the switch back and forth between boiling and battering mayhem and gut-punching, head-butting brutishness, with bits of corrosive clawing and moaning tonalities in the mix to give the experience a dismal shadow (futility indeed). They bring the circle saws belching exhaust plus mortar fire in the low end, with ravenous roaring and torrid screaming urging on the destruction.
As icing on this gnarly cake the band also bring in the pile-drivers near the end, intent on simultaneously working the necks of listeners and pounding them into a slag of jellied viscera and bone splinters.
Transcending Obscurity will release the new split on 8-panel digipak CD and digital formats, along with an extravagant array of apparel. The label recommends it for fans of Bloodbath, Entombed, Dismember, Grave, Death Breath, Vomitheist, Nihilist, and Gatecreeper.
Below you’ll find all the usual links, as well as streams of Crawl‘s other track from the split, the crusty, calamitous, heaving and highly headbangable “Where Dead Flesh Whispers “, and one of Feral‘s two songs, “From the Ancient Tombs“, a monstrous jackhammer-fest that’s guaranteed to roil up circle pits and spill guts whenever it’s performed live.
(To remove any guesswork, all four of the tracks on the split are already on our burgeoning list of candidates for the year’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs.)
PRE-ORDER:
Bandcamp: https://feralsweden.bandcamp.com/album/made-as-those-who-are-no-longer-alive-split
US Store: https://transcendingobscurity.aisamerch.com/
EU Store: https://transcendingobscurity.8merch.com/