The Crawling – Anatomy of Loss

[schema type=”review” name=”The Crawling – Anatomy of Loss” description=”Label: Grindscene Records” author=”Basak Günel” pubdate=”2017-04-07″ ]

The Crawling is a band from Northern Ireland. They were formed in 2014 and their style can be described as doom/death metal. With the release of a debut album and an EP in 2015, they have slowly gained reputation in the scene and played in many shows and festivals including the Inferno Metal Festival and Bloodstock Open Air. They have recently released their album called “Anatomy of Loss”.

The album has definitely the nice mixture of doom and death metal. Although the sound rotates around doom metal, the dynamics and the musical elements of the album reflect the death metal sound quite well. The riffs especially caught my attention the most; they depicted the emotions and feelings in the songs quite well. On the other hand, I think that although the vocals technically formed a nice harmony with the other instruments, they lacked the feeling and the emotion. So for me, the highlight has been definitely the e-guitars. The listener will feel the doom as well as the death metal atmosphere in these elements quite well.

When I span the record, I realized that some songs stand out more than others so depending on your taste, you might spin certain songs more. So integrity might be one of the aspects that the band might work on in the future; the more integrated the album is, the more the listener will want to spin it from the beginning to the end instead of returning to 2-3 songs. In my opinion, the songs that stood out the most were “An Immaculate Deception” and “Acid on My Skin”. I think that these songs represent the character of the album quite well.

Another aspect I would maybe criticize would be the lack of originality and the spark in the album. As a reviewer, I always look for certain moments or certain elements that make the album stay in my head or create the spark. Although “Anatomy of Loss” is a good doom/death metal record, I couldn’t find those unique elements overall. I think that the band’s style is really open and definitely holds potential so I am sure they will improve themselves with the upcoming records.

Apart from some aspects that need to be improved, “Anatomy of Loss” is a nice doom/death metal record filled with the doom and the gloom. Give it a spin if you are a fan of those genres.

Line-up:

Gary Beattie – drums
Stuart Rainey – bass, vocals
Andy Clarke – guitar, vocals

Tracklist: 01. An Immaculate Deception 02. Poison Orange 03. Acid On My Skin 04. All Our Failings 05. The Right To Crawl 06. Violence Vanity and Neglect 07. Catatonic

Links:
The Crawling Official