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CRAWL
Altar Of Disgust

Transcending Obscurity (2024)
Rating: 7/10

I’m always confused when a band chooses a bland moniker that several other acts have already used. In this case, Crawl is a Swedish death metal posse that worships the HM-2 and d-beat styles, and where obvious comparisons can be made to Swedish legends Entombed alongside the likes of Grave, Dismember, Vomitory and Lik.

Crawl is no stranger to crusty edges having rattled our brains since 2015 with their I: Serpents demo and Worship Death EP, which were followed by a debut full-length, Rituals, in 2018. So to an extent this is groove-based buzz saw bludgeoning that requires little thought or attention, but if you succumb to its nuances rather than criticise then you can expect quite the whirlwind.

As with a lot of this stuff the riffs are the star even if ploughing over already well furrowed ground. From the off Crawl provides hideous lashings of 1990 as ‘Undead Crypts’ foams with rabid aplomb. There are punky elements with the pace, while the vocals of Joachim Lyngfelt are rancid slurping. The hyper pace continues with ‘Throne Of Molten Bones’, another volatile offering that refuses to step outside the classic Swedish framework while remaining fluently aggressive.

For me, I can get excited about the hostility but there are few variances throughout for me to remain so buoyed. Put simply, if you like the formulaic savagery then this will be up your street, but for me, apart from the rare flirts of bleak subtlety (‘Where No Light Escapes’) this is standard stuff. Sporadic streaks of black metal coldness creep in but the album becomes all too predictable with nigh on every track so eager to kick into a buzz saw gallop.

Maybe if more macabre trudges (‘Into Sordid Rifts’) were introduced I’d be more on board, but cherry pick most cuts here and you’ll be ravaged by the same sounding barrages already tried and tested over 30 years ago.

Neil Arnold

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