The Crawling – All Of This For Nothing
Origin: Northern Ireland
Release: 04.08.2023
Label: Grindscene Records
Genre: Death Doom Metal
Hardly any other genre has as many underground bands as Death Doom Metal – but only a few bands manage to become real “stars”. To be fair, one has to say that this style of metal isn’t necessarily the most popular either, but rather something for the more sophisticated.
Nevertheless, there are quite a few bands that you, at least as a genre connoisseur, have heard and appreciate. The Crawling from Northern Ireland fall into this category, because although they are rooted in the underground, they are already quite high up there. In other words: for an “unknown” band, the trio is already quite popular. The third album All Of This For Nothing should do a lot to keep it that way.
melancholy and aggression
Already in the opener March Of The Worm show the Northern Irish where their strengths lie. Heavy and catchy riffs, snarling growls and occasional tempo changes with double bass – that’s pretty much how you can imagine the sound of The Crawling introduce. HERE go to the video.
Of course, the musicians don’t win an innovation competition with this orientation. But that’s not what Doomy Death Metal is about anyway, it’s about atmosphere. And for this, the trio likes to use clear, undistorted sounds, for example in Bound To The Negative. By the way, this song is one of the highlights of the album, because melancholy and aggression are perfectly balanced here.
Few surprises
Total rely The Crawling a little too reliant on well-known songwriting formulas. Because if you listen to the seven songs on the album in a row, you will eventually drift away. Unfortunately, the accents and small surprises that are able to tie the listener to an album over the entire playing time are missing. But that’s whining on a high level, because All Of This For Nothing has become a remarkable album in the narrow genre corset of Death Doom Metal. Genre fans will enjoy this, all other Metallers will find their 2-3 favorites and probably skip the rest.
As I said, this is not due to the quality of the songs, but because they follow certain patterns a little too strictly. Nevertheless, with atmospherically grumpy songs like Leaving The Skin or the final one Sparrow delivery The Crawling once again and solidify their place at the top of the underground.
Conclusion
All Of This For Nothing has become a compact Death Doom Metal album and is therefore particularly interesting for genre enthusiasts. The Crawling celebrate the slow death steel on their usual high level and feel audibly comfortable in the schemes of this metal style. 7 / 10.
Line Up
Stuart Rainey – bass, vocals
Gary Beattie – drums
Andy Clarke – guitar, vocals
Tracklist
01. March Of The Worm
02. Another Vulture
03. Thy Nazarene
04. Bound To The Negative
05. Leaving The Skin
06. A Light We Cannot See
07. Sparrow
Links
Facebook The Crawling
Also on Soundmagnet.eu
Album Review – Mammon’s Throne – Mammon’s Throne
Interview – Deep Space Mask, asked by Raymz
EP Review – Inhuman Condition – Panic Prayer
Cool article? Discuss with us on Facebook!