Labels: Radar Swarm
Review by: Kunal Nandi
This brilliant album (Craw’s fourth in a ten-year career) marks a return to a rather more straightforward style after “Map, Monitor, Surge”‘s incredible heavy-jazz freakout. I don’t know what they dump in the Cleveland, USA water supply, but judging by this, it must contain a hell of a lot of drugs and a hell of a lot of lead.
They’re all awesome musicians. Crunching dual guitars flit from bruising powerchords to picked lines in an instant, and the fluid bass lines bounce acrobatically. It’s incredible how tight everything is, how much they act as a single organism, held together by the incredible Will Scharf, on loan as lynchpin drumming machine from the equally-stunning Keelhaul.
Over the top go the unique vocal stylings of one Mr. Joe McTighe. His rasping, nasal yell instantly marks Craw songs out as different, as the way in which he drawls his demented lyrics is far and away from your typical hardcore grunt. You can even make out what he saying which makes a nice change. But even this nutter is in keeping with the regimented beating of the drum, as the words and phrases complement the music perfectly, as well as that all-important humanising aspect. It’s all heartfelt music, even if those feelings are rage, retribution, regret. And so on.
This album simply reaffirms my conviction that Hydrahead are not only putting out the best new (hardcore) music around nowadays, but are also actively seeking out and supporting those influential bands that have been toiling away for years as well as wrapping that music in some beautiful artwork.
These puny words cannot adequately describe the sheer power of the music contained within, so I’ll shut up while you go out and buy it.