CROWBAR: Zero And Below (HEAVY METAL): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Crowbar has been spreading the good word of sludge for thirty years. Pioneer of the genre, the American band has never changed its course. Led by Kirk Windstein, the band has been able to resist to the trends and is back with a twelfth album, "Zero And Below". Crowbar likes to take his time, Kirk being often busy with side projects, especially Down in the 2000s. But like an old friend, he's always there to give us a dose of heavy music.

In ten tracks and barely more than forty minutes, Crowbar applies its musical formula with a goldsmith precision. A handful of tracks ('The Fear That Bind You', 'Her Evil Is Scared', 'Chemical Godz', 'Bleeding From Every Hole', 'Reanimating A Lie') build a formidable sludge whole with a fat, heavy and sticky side. The riffs and solos are of a huge intensity, they give off a typical groove and devastate everything in their path. Kirk is in great shape with a rocky vocal tthat seems to come out of a swamp from the depths of Louisiana.

At the same time Crowbar is more groovy and throbbing. Kirk Windstein alternates between lament-like ('Confess To Nothing', 'Crush Negativity'), mystical 70's (the heavy and southern 'Denial Of Truth') or plaintive vocals ('Zero And Below' exhaling end of the world tones), as if he was singing from the deepest abyss. The riffs are slower, but their strength stuns the listener.

With "Zero And Below", Crowbar offers a superb heavy and powerful sludge album, tinged with a melancholy that takes the guts. He shows with class that he remains the boss of the genre and that nothing seems to be able to dislodge him from his throne. - Official website

CROWBAR

ZERO AND BELOW

AUTRE LABEL

HEAVY METAL