Crawl - Mine Maille Shone Not The Light of Death (2012)

Demo / Live, Self-released /Independent

August 1st, 2012

Genre: Sludge/Doom Metal
Region: USA

Not long after I listened to Crawl's demo I purchased the cassette release that follows it titled Mine Maille Shone Not The Light of Death. As I mentioned in that previous post this Texas experiment in tortured ambient doom has found a more unique avenue to express the weight of defeat and uncaring isolation through a simple ceremonial set up of drums, bass and vocals (and here a didgeridoo), and with Mine Maile... Crawl capture this desolate expression more intensely live.

"The recordings herein serve as an interpretation of failure. They are not intended as a gift to the spiritual inner, but merely as a gateway to the tunnels of depression brought unto the underwhelmed. 

These tracks have been released onto tape in order to properly express the beaten and downtrodden aspects of aural imprisonment."

This is how the author wishes to express this records goal and perspective. The three tracks here do a good job at instilling those feelings of swirling around a frigid and dark drain, droning agony filling your consciousness. Instead of shorter dissonant doom spells, on Mine Maille... Crawl is reveling in a slow, blunt bludgeoning from the out set, swamped in rust and archaic ritual odours. However the change is a shift away from the heavily distorted machine-like pace and sound in order to find other paths to grow from.

That is not to say this element is completely gone, but this tape seems more focused elsewhere. The first blow comes in the form of "Breath of the Dying", a ten minute descent marking the start of that different approach for Crawl. This kind of sonic force does well this way if tailored properly — again it's not funeral doom but it's also not the dual bass stoner rockfall of Horse Latitudes either. Crawl desires to meddle in more chilling, martial horrors. After a quiet build that brings the anxiety up with tribal thumps, feeback announces the journey has commenced. With this track it is the closest the record sounds to anything on the first demo (track two would be a good example).

You'll get an intoxicating dose of tone all the way through the opening song from the thick humming and growling that takes heavy swings in the pitch black atmosphere. A solid and slow groove is carved out in the tolls of a girthy bass tone and enormous, hammering percussion in harmony with one another. The way the track flows gives more insight into the title. It progresses to a point of feedback resembling a flat-line and kick/snare drops, and then becomes cold with only the beat that slows drastically like a dying heart in the cold of night.

(Unmarked black cassette)

"Summon Greater Bonespirit" is a pretty substantial track despite what it might sound like. This is where the didgeridoo is utilized to surprisingly great effect, much like a siren in the middle of a either a raging fire or torrential downpour as thunder rolls ominously above. The combination works well, drawing you into Crawls hex from a different position. Those blasts oscillate occasionally as if off kilter sometimes (foreshadowing), the atmosphere only disturbed by eerie whispers in the right channel at around the four minute mark — and suddenly you're shocked from this fade by an augmented howl from the didgeridoo. Digitized, industrialized. Much more 'noise' oriented for that brief section, a very clever use of that instrument in my opinion especially for doom — blending a little death industrial in there.

By now it's easier to recognize that this heap of sludge has been experimenting more even within it's own forming niche, in "Frozen Horror" the ambient side comes out for four minutes but does not expand much. It consists of a chime or bell that has been distorted and morphed, and flexes over the course of the track sounding like something out of a horror film. The dragging samples are the final sounds on the tape.

As a live recording it sounds fucking crisp: bass and drums while pounded ferociously are not distorted or muddy, sharp cymbals, though the vocals are a little too far back. The style though may lend to being a little more buried: frenzied screaming like the angered caws of a raven fighting over a cadaver. It's a cryptic release and feels more like an interlude or teaser of what is to come than a proper or thirst-quenching record but what is hear is not replicated elsewhere too often, if at all.

If you're into the heavy and obscure there's no reason not to check this 19 minute live ritual out, it's free and crushing so I recommend you do. The changes do nothing but make the project more intriguing. Below you can get a taste of Crawl's recent pulverizing ceremony.

Also if you like what you hear you can grab a copy of the limited cassette over at Crawl's big cartel store in both regular and limited edition, and at Murder/Suicide Incidents, or a digital copy on their bandcamp page. I was informed he was going to update the store with more merch in the near future so check back if later if shit's not up. Follow on facebook for show and future release information.



DOWNLOAD (Bandcamp)

Crawl - Demo (2011)

Demo, Self-released / Unsigned
July 11th, 2011

Genre: Noise/Sludge/Doom Metal
Region: USA

The album cover is simple, the moniker evoking some kind of Nails copycat riding on the blackened sludge wave. Don't be fooled though. Crawl is very deserving of the title, a new Khanate-esque mutant that fans of patient, surgical heaviness will want to take note of. Crawl is one guy with a bass and drums making bone-scraping sludge in Texas unlike much out there right now. I don't remember how I came across this whether by random search or through email request but I found the link today and popped this demo on, resulting in me being surprised and subsequently squashed.

This demo is only 15 minute long over five tracks but these four minute chunks of cold sludge drag in the best way possible. Each untitled song is like a glacier collapsing on top of you, suffocating and biting with every lead-weighted strike of the bass strings, distorted and sterile almost taking on an industrial feel — the breaths of silence adding an abrupt ambiance and heightening the creepy atmosphere. All this makes four minutes feel like it's swollen to ten from the raw stomping Crawl dish out.

Very loud, machine-like rhythms through fuzz and feedback, the percussion blending with the slams of the bass into a blurry and menacing bombardment; in the slower moments its more martial. The most straight forward track is probably the first one, which breaks into a more normal gait in the middle but is book-ended by savage eruptions. 'II" and the following tracks make use of silence more before delving into the down-tuned churn that I'm very much loving. It gets really blown out sometimes which embellishes the heaviness sometimes.

Both that and "III" are songs that bend slow, plodding riffs and the rising static distortion while shaking bass lines are left to grow and rattle the soundscape apart. "IV" takes the approach of oldschool swans on "Coward" with gravel bass jerks to a halt with the drums, eventually becoming far noisier than those early influences.

Crawl have some unreal industrial heaviness on very simple terms and I suggest you give this demo a listen. They kind of give off a power-electronics/death industrial feeling but in a different context.

Crawl offers this frigid record for free on bandcamp so throw him a few dollars if you want and you can check their store for physical copies. A second record Mine Maille Shone Not The Light of Death (a live recording) is pressed on limited tapes over at Murder/Suicide Incidents, which I'm sure I'll be reviewing soon. Follow the blog. Big recommendation especially for lovers of harsh heaviness like Swans, Khanate, and Whitehorse and shit.


DOWNLOAD (Bandcamp)