Sweden has long been a flagship country for all of death metal throughout the decades, that much is certain. Yet, the preservation of traditional Swedish death is something that not many are willing to take up, but some decide to wield it with a combination of other styles. Crust is something I’ve never really expected in death metal before hearing the likes of Ursinne and Down Among the Dead Men. I’m not sure what I expected from Crawl, but their new album is beyond anything I could’ve asked for.

Having listened to these nine unrelenting tracks of Swedish death coated in a thin layer of crust, I would’ve thought that this would be the third, fourth, or such album from Crawl given the quality of it. The musicianship is nigh on tantalizing with riffs laden all over the place, a great energy that permeates the whole of “Rituals”, and a no-fucks-given attitude paired with immaculate execution allows for this record to feel tempered yet cut loose at the same time. A debut is hard to bring all that together into a comprehensible sound that is still crispy by the end, but Crawl makes it look like fucking child’s play with “Rituals”. Such a raw yet refined style is hard to come by, but with a swift delivery and expertise out the ass, Crawl performs like few other acts can while managing to make it an entertaining ride the entire time! There has never really been a “golden age” of crust to my knowledge (please feel free to berate me if I’m wrong), but with the very recent iterations from the realm of crust with massive acts like the aforementioned Ursinne and Down Among the Dead Men, Crawl has found a damn near perfect time to release “Rituals” in all of its nastiness and filth.

Typically, I want more meat on the bones of albums that I listen to all in one go, but acts like Crawl make for some crispy exceptions to that rule. Albums like “Rituals” make me want to get more into crust every single time, and it’s no wonder that staggering performances like this help keep the style alive and well.

“Rituals” releases on August 20th via Transcending Obscurity Records!

LISTEN to advanced tracks from “Rituals” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Crawl on Facebook here.