Three nasty, noisy albums into their career, Sweden’s Crowpath continue to make caustic, brittle attack that seems to be a perfect fit for Willowtip and gives the label’s relatively quiet 2008, a noisy, discordant ending.

With a turbulent, chaotic sound akin to a being stuck in a sonic landslide, Crowpath’s largely unclassifiable mix of grind, crust, death metal and hardcore scatters it self across many genres. On one had it has some discordant merciless similarities with the noisy hardcore scene like early The Red Chord and Architect, on the other hand there’s some Napalm Death -ish conviction and ferocity and its all wrapped in the expected Willowtip sense of feral complexity and tenacity.

The end result is a 31 minute cyclone of noise that for the most part delivers 2-3 minute bursts of aggression and a snarling vocal attack as mightily displayed in the likes of “Plague Bearer”, “Fondling the Grotesque”, “The Deed” and “The Hunt”. However, there have been some subtle developments in the Crowpath camp as the like of sludgy “I Gryningen”, surprisingly developed five minute orchestrated chaos of “Cleansed In Chlorine”, lurching “Septic Monarch” and closer “Retarded Angel” see some controlled, scrawling, suffocating atmospheres edge there way into the chaos with a menacing, oppressive air.

The experimental injections are minimal, but they break up a virtually relentless assault making for a perfectly paced and rendered album from a consistently abrasive and talented group of noisemongers.

[Visit the band's website]

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