Band:	Crawl
Album:	Rituals
Style:	Death metal
Release date:	August 20, 2018
A review by:	nikarg

01. Reject The Cross
02. Breathing Violence
03. The Stench
04. Black Ritual
05. Trail Of Traitors
06. Sentenced To Rot
07. Cowards
08. Suffer
09. Coven Of Servants

Rituals is the debut album by Swedish death metal band Crawl and it's safe to say that with this old-school death metal comeback of late, it's pretty hard to actually make a difference in this sound. So what do Crawl do to show their teeth and avoid the standard Entombed / Dismember worship?

Rituals is an unmistakeably Swedeath-sounding album, boasting the nastiness, filth and unpolished brutality that goes hand in hand with this style. At the same time, it is extremely catchy and direct, with 9 songs that clock in at only around 26 minutes. Apart from the closer, "Coven Of Servants", every track does not go over the 3-minute mark so what you get is sharp and deadly bites opting for quality over quantity.

The most enjoyable thing about Crawl's debut is its seamless blend of metal with punk and hardcore. Even the less speedy tracks have a distinctive punkish attitude and feel to them and the songs sometimes blend into each other leaving you defenceless from the non-stop beating. There is an almost total absence of melody with only a few lead guitar injections here and there ("The Stench", "Suffer", "Coven Of Servants") and a limited number of tasty licks between the riffs ("Reject The Cross", "Trail Of Traitors"). Solos are nowhere to be found. Instead, there are plenty of killer buzzsaw riffs as you would expect, punishing breakdowns and energetic grooves, while for such a short album blastbeats are not overused and their duration is restrained ("Breathing Violence", "Sentenced To Rot").

As far as the sound is concerned, the guitar sticks out like Sissy Hankshaw's gigantic thumbs and is sure to fulfil your HM2 needs. The bass and the drums are also high in the mix, loud, pounding and violent, giving the music an extra layer of chaos and destruction.

If you enjoyed this year's release by labelmates Down Among The Dead Men, you should try Rituals as well. It is a no-frills, annihilating and relentless death metal record that pays homage to its progenitors, but features enough elements from other styles to make a difference.

Who is up for some bludgeoning?