Crowbar

Equilibrium (Spitfire)
by Martin Popoff

Continuing down the most excellent pathway of the underrated Odd Fellows Rest, Kirk, Sammy and crew have inflicted a little more Trouble into their fire-the-brimstone doomskullery. As Sammy puts it, “the note density is up,” although really, Crowbar have stuck to their break-the-spoon pudding, still living the slo life as the perfect alloy of the lefties and righties within the Nola sound. And Kirk calls the record “more riffed-up,” another fitting and fine comment, much of this skirting the like-minded Cathedral, less deliberately backed-up hardcore, more ghoulish and gothic and Anglorified than this weird tattooed street-wise swamp monster thing they had going.There’s dimension as well as atmospheric Type O dementia, Kirk widening his vocal performance, while still pounding and purging his psyche intimately, for all to witness, for some to take notice and use in their own world. Two tracks stick out: one is a cover of Gary Wright’s “Dreamweaver” (here’s where the Type O is plain, all too plain), a dismangled, mangy, sloghorse of a rendition that was admittedly, done while ripped. Second is a cobwebby piano dirge called “To Touch the Hand of God,” which strays nary a hair from the band’s hairshirt self-flail. But back in the metal zone, horrendously carved grooves accompany almost every track, courtesy of new drummer Sid Montz, so there’s a nice rock star Importance to accompany the new advanced riffery, the band no longer necessarily occupying modest niches, building the departures of the last album into something more heavy metal universal than this bald-headed steroid gangery for which they once seemed fashioned.
(www.spitfirerecords.com)