DEATHCRAWL

A few years back it seemed like every time I turned around I was getting killer sludge/doom releases from the fertile Northeast Ohio scene. Releases from FISTULA, RUE, and tons of others on labels like Retribute and Corley Music (superman Corey Bing's label) were constantly filling my mailbox. Then things got quiet for a while. Hell, Youngstown even lost Emission from the Monolith! What's this world coming to? So, I'd not heard much from the region until DEATHCRAWL's "The End is Not Near Enough" arrived like an anvil being dropped from the 100th floor of a skyscraper. It is 74 minutes of crusty doom and sludge like only a Northeastern Ohio rabble can perform it.

DEATHCRAWL was started by scene veterans "BigMetal" Dave Johnson (drums, throat, nord) and Jason Luchka (bass, throat, moog, accordion…yes, accordion; check out the ending of "Valley of the Kings"). Johnson is known for his playing and engineering on releases from SON OF JOR-EL, KING TRAVOLTA, and ASCENSION and is currently bassist for Cleveland thrash band SOULLESS. Luchka is known (in the underground anyway) for his work with THE GINGERDEAD MEN, and THESE LAKES, THESE GRAVES. The trio rounds out with Damon "the Damonowskivich" Gregg (guitar, throat) previously of PISTOLS AT DAWN and A BETTER LIE. So yes, the band has an impressive pedigree and the unit does not disappoint on "The End is not Near Enough". In fact, it sounds like an album made by a collective that wanted to remind the world of what made Northeast Ohio such a doom/sludge hotbed in the first place.

Anyway, "The End is not Near Enough" is an outstanding addition to the storied region's musical output. While the sections of slow, bulldozer bludgeon are fantastic (the weight of the riffs, the trampling rhythms, the glass gargling vocals),the album's impact runs deeper because of the act's compositional skills. A one-trick pony this is not. For example, a song like "The Subtle Art of Going Nowhere" moves along with an almost epic, rolling groove. The 12-minute "Deserted" transitions from slow crawl basics and light licks (with background throat crackles) that are mesmerizing — in an opium den sort of way — to melancholy dirge to a morbid groove propelled with a rumbling bass creep. The sections that are slow and bruising are also entrancing, but tempos do change, vocal interplay occurs periodically, and churning riffs morph into bullish stampedes. The album keeps your attention for the entire ride, unless of course you hate the style to begin with. In other words, there is a surprising amount of variety here.

At the heart of it though, this is angry and junk-fueled sludge, no question. EYEHATEGOD eat your heart out! The attack causes earth tremors; a feat easier said than done, but the boys completely understand how to get those tectonic plates moving As if that weren't enough, crust chips flake off the damn thing like skin from a leper. On "The End is Not Near Enough", DEATHCRAWL works the hell out of these songs within the confines of sludge/doom; the result an aurally abusive and physically demanding release made even more stunning when one considers that DEATHCRAWL is an unsigned band! This is raw meat for the lions.