Warcrab wants us all dead.
Four years after their last album, Martyn Grant (vocals), Geoff Holmes (guitar), Leigh Jones (guitar), David Simmonds (bass) and Rich Parker (drums) renew their partnership with Transcending Obscurity Records for the release of The Howling Silence, their fourth album.
The album opens with Orbital Graveyard, which immediately reveals its thick Sludge influences beneath the aggressive Death Metal. The vocalist’s wild screams join the effective catchy riffs, strengthening the power of this explosive track, then Titan of War offers a more dissonant heady approach with groovy patterns to which the musicians add a touch of rage. The mix remains perfectly balanced, with saturation aiding the rhythm’s heaviness, which tends to brutally speed up while Black Serpent Coils first unveils an ominous bass sound, followed by mysterious harmonics and then the sound mass. The band remains anchored in its heavy tones, as on the energetic Sword Of Mars, which begins with regular eruptions of violence, but also allows a few more piercing leads to join the wave of raw power, then As The Mourners Turn Away begins with a dark gentleness, letting the few notes fly through the air before adopting more impressive riffs. The track’s slowness gives it a very different ambience from its predecessors, while remaining in the familiar tones as the sound progresses, even offering a few melancholy touches before returning to the unhealthy sound on Sourlands Under A Rancid Sun, which remains in the haunting oppression. The album closes with Howling Silence, the long final composition, which hammers us in turn, accelerating to become haunting on the final run, before the sound gradually fades out.
Warcrab‘s dirty, saturated mix makes The Howling Silence a relatively accessible album, but still very dark and catchy. The band’s riffs will quickly get skulls shaking as they spread their raw strength!
85/100