30+ Years: Crowbar has kept their dirty sludge metal alive, even with a small “quiet time”. “Zero and Below” allows their new bassist Shane Wesley to feature on. It’s clear that he’s settled in well, since he’s been in the mix since 2018. And as in true Crowbar fashion, their new music doesn’t deviate at all from the music that we always came to love.
Opening with “The Fear That Binds You”, Kirk brings that all back. He’s never lost anything when it came to the pulse pounding rhythm, accompanied with the shrieking vocals to match.
Listening to “Her Evil is Sacred”, it drops in and out of the depths. Then… A cool dirty hook, leading into a Kirk vocal slaughter… Always Epic…
“Confess to Nothing” drills down a hole into the verse that merges the low demonic shriek with the dirty chugging guitar riff from H***. Almost haunting.
“Chemical Godz” picks up steam. Makes you go on a musical roller coaster from a fat, quick pace, only to drop into a spiral of sludge like riffs.
And, one of my personal favorites, “Bleeding from Every Hole”… And the accompanying music video. And we talked to Kirk about the new single. This one takes the cake! Kirk mentioned that he will f@#k up a riff for this one live… Needless to say… it was perfect in our ears!!!
The title track, “Zero and Below”, was spiritual. It drives through you like a slow motion bombing. The layers of guitar and fading in of the vocals drive the song in a way that is the Crowbar trademark… and thus the title track!
Crowbar’s longevity and stamina just illustrates the fact that metal will never die!!! “Zero and Below” will prove it!
