Underground never ceases to amaze and give you something special and unique to listen and to satisfy your black heart with. CRAWL is a one man entity with one Michael A. Engle simultaneously playing drums, bass, vocals, synth and samples all at once. If CRAWL performs live that is surely unique and special sight and soundscape to behold and hear. This one contains only four songs with shortest being a little under seven minutes and longest being a little under eleven minutes. But, do not despair. Hark, CRAWL has so much to offer. This is darkness pure, so thick and when listening to this one, you feel like standing in front of a black wall with no possibility to cross it only to wither and die, but also it provides darkness so touchable that you can almost feel the wall of fear and despair with the tips of your fingers. CRAWL plays something in between blackened dungeon doom with tortured vocals screams, some whispers and speak like in horror movies, many samples, distorted bass, slow and funeral drum procession melancholy emphasized with piano and synth parts and some almost ritualistic slowing down, like you can virtually feel your heart beat slowing down and some song parts for me symbolize withering and dying, hopelessness and darkness, with no end in sight only despair and anguish, also with aggression as a result of realizing above mentioned. You must listen to this one as a whole process, it is excellent.
Our Croatian underground scene just thrives and pulsates with great bands and releases and I remember the first time I saw Drone Hunter from neighbouring Varaždin town. It was an open air gig organized by members of MC Miners from Varaždin behind one shopping mall with Đubrivo from Split and some other bands and I immediately fell in love with Drone Hunter´s music. Later on my band played a house gig in Varaždin in a garage of one guy´s home and it was fantastic. I interviewed the guys for this zine and reviewed earlier releases. Now, it is time for a new e.p. This one contains 5 songs. Although Drone Hunter are an instrumental band and I am not an avid fan of bands without vocals, this one is so good that vocals are not needed, the instruments do the talking. Songs are so well written that they tell a story. The music of Drone Hunter is hard to categorize, but I will try. It is a mixture of doom, stoner, sludge, hard rock and atmospheric post rock. But, what brought more joy to this heart are some faster, almost thrash metal parts of the songs Cabin Fever and The Dark Den Brought Me Here. Production on this e.p. is so strong and great, courtesy of Tompa at e-minor studio in Varaždin, this dude does great job with many bands from this scene here up north. Anyway, if you like atmosphere, harsh riffs, aggression, emotions, check out Drone Hunter and support the scene.
Declared Dead have been active since 2014 and they are very prolific Belgian entity with this new one being already eleventh full length opus with releases of average two full lengths every year since 2016. Although there are band members names, I think this whole music is the work of only one man. This new one contains eight songs of dirty, raw thrash black metal attack, but I can also hear some sludge metal influences in the song structures. That means thundering bass, sometimes complex sometimes punkish simple drum patterns, sharp and raw guitar riffs with some melodies and solos thrown in where it fits and angry, screaming vocals reminding me somehow of eighties thrash metal bands. Songs like Fever Dream Ritual, Decimation(Blood Tithe) or Violence as Aphrodisiac are sure to win you over with their ritualistic, simple yet aggressive approach. This is a soundtrack for the end of the world. Brutal and raw, yet deep in some parts.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 