Crows An Wra come from Cornwall. I was vaguely familiar with them before picking this up and was kind of expecting to like this having enjoyed their 10inch from earlier this year but this is streets ahead of that record. The instrumental opener ushers in the lurching menace of “Perseus” and from there it’s a frenetic journey full of twists and turns starting with the driven and spiky “Vibrant Colours”. The vocals are powerful but it’s a fair way from screamo with a broader range in the vocals than before and you can make out every word, even delving into some talk-mo briefly on “Ataraxia”. Riffs are angular and delivered with aplomb and the natural flow of the record is such that it makes this one of the most cohesive records I’ve heard all year. Towards the end, “Heavy Hands (i)” changes things with its haunting acoustic guitar and vocals by Elizabeth Birchley who sticks around for the harder “Blossom (ii)”. The record closes in tumultuous fashion with “This Will Soon Be Forgotten”.
At times I’m reminded of The Mars Volta with some of the weirder, spacey, prog moments and guitar sounds but this is more direct and tighter, and without any of the longer drawn-out parts. You could say that that would be more At The Drive-in so a sound somewhere between the two perhaps. You can certainly hear both bands’ influence but their darker side also fits in nicely with heavier current bands like Trembling Hands.
It’s relatively short at 25-ish minutes long but there is huge replay value for me here and this is another shining example of what is going on in the UK this year as this is as outstanding as it is innovative.