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CRAWL
Rituals

Transcending Obscurity (2018)
Rating: 6.5/10

This particular Swedish act has been around since 2014, and Rituals is the debut full-length outing from the band which is led by vocalist Joachim Lyngfelt who joined in 2017. Completing the line-up on this record are original members Martin Sjögren (guitar and bass) and Ämir Batar (drums).

Now, before I go onto to review the album I must admit I had one major concern, that being that Crawl would sound like so many Swedish death metal band… and sadly they do.

Having been around in the late-80s / early-90s when the likes of Entombed, Carnage and Dismember lashed our ears, I’ve seen no reason since for bands to continue to ape that particular loose ‘n’ lethal sound. But continue to ape they do, and after a while they all seem to blur into one to create one huge bandwagon of same-sounding belligerence. Unfortunately, there are many a time throughout this album when Crawl – through all their quality, effort and hostility – slip into that same generic style.

Rituals is still a very good album, but the thick air of familiarity just chokes me to death as the combo rattles its way through nine solid songs. Maybe the clues should have been there with the band moniker of Crawl, which of course was the title of a 1991 EP by Entombed. The clue should also have been picked up from Crawl’s 2015 EP entitled Worship Death, the title saying it all as these guys clearly exist in adoration of that old school style of hammering.

By implementing levels of crust and hardcore too, Rituals boasts a rotten and infectious sound which, in spite of the varying flecks, rarely steps out of the shadows of that known Stockholm sound. From ‘Reject The Cross’ through to ‘Black Ritual’ and then to closer ‘Coven Of Servants’ there’s still that guttural gush of standard Swedish expression The tracks feature that trusty chainsaw grind, the dehydrated vocal coughs and the volatile cymbal hiss, and in spite of occasional kicks away from the expected patterns this is still very much Swedish death-by-numbers – although much the promotional information tries to tell you otherwise.

Of course, as I’m the sort of person who loves darker, brooding grooves of fustiness, a track such as ‘Suffer’ offers plenty where the mid-tempo malevolence just seethes with a rusty anger. Meanwhile, cuts such as ‘The Strench’ and ‘Sentenced To Rot’ exude a punky malice, and any self-respecting death metal fan that was there back in the golden era will no doubt appreciate what’s going on.

However, the big question is, how long will it take you to grow tired of such run-of-the-mill designs? That’s not to say that Rituals is an exhausting record as it’s all rather short ‘n’ snappy, but it still very much abides by that classic Swedish framework of sound. And with a whole host of bands still churning out such a style, my concern is that Crawl will simply be swallowed up in one big whirlpool of sound-alikes.

Neil Arnold

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