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Crowbar: Sever the wicked hand

16/09/11 || The Duff

Crowbar are up there with the best of them, with the exception of “Equilibrium” being slightly hit-and-miss, not one bad album in roughly 43 years, the time it takes to finally overcome THHUWURGH POOOWAAAAAIIIIIYNE!!! Their last effort was “Lifesblood for the Downtrodden”, an album that didn’t surpass the exceptional “Sonic Excess in Its Purest Form” but by golly despite failing to live up to expectations in many ways it was everything it could and should have been.

I must set up a charity one of these days called “Tears for Kirk”, help buy him some extensions to his facial hair.

Now we’re an enormous seven years between albums, and fear creeps in when main songwriter and bearded beautiful man Kirk Windstein collaborates with Jamie Jasta (not that I have a problem with Hatebreed, I just hate their music) and releases in the seven-year time span awaiting new Crowbar material two new efforts – that’s a lot of time spent writing catchier tunes at the expense of your main outfit. All of this build-up written out with almost heart-breaking intensity by yours truly isn’t to allay your worries; Crowbar have slipped, and this album is pretty fucking bad.

BAD-FUCKING-ASS!

No, not really. It’s bad.

It’s not that bad.

See one thing Crowbar always did right was they never evolved; they simply matured as songwriters, but they were about as reliable as Amon Amarth in terms of sounding identical from one album to the next. Now, this is a bad thing by the time you reach the “Surtur Rising” in your career, but it’s been seven years, and so the attempt to not diversify but to alter your sound by trying to complicate a formula that works best when left simple is why “Sever the Wicked Hand” fails in some a regard to the ardent Crowbar fan like myself.

I wonder if Kirk sees the colour pink the same way I do?

The notes have the propensity to clash, and from the very beginning as well – it’s not like we have a warm-up session to get to grips, we’re immediately hit by traditional Crowbar leads that fly in from all over the place with album opener “Isolation (Desperation)”; these aren’t depressing harmonies, the phrasing prevents them from being such, it’s instead poorly written music of a sound the band once helped pioneer. There are several examples of such which will be dealt with later once I prevail through this blasted thick film of tears.

I wonder if Kirk has ever loved a woman, I mean really loved a woman?

“Sever the Wicked Hand” falls on the limp side chiefly because of the production; it’s real thin, the music bare to all, and consequently the simplicity of the material is made too apparent – productions on past records would swamp the listener, pull you down by the gravity of the ten-tonne riffage; this record, it all sounds quite the emasculated affair with the tuneage forced to be the most alluring aspect, and let’s face it, musically Crowbar are very much bread and water.

Also, Kirk can’t sing; I know this, we all know this, but without the weight of the music, his gargled bullshit (seriously, I had no idea Crowbar lyrics were so pedantic when deprived of the sludge and energy that often drowned them out) is embarrassingly put on a pedestal – only during the punkier, speedier sections or when shifting to his cleaner style do they not suffer a tragic death. That said, subjectively speaking, I still do love the guy.

I wonder if Kirk has ever gotten into a fight, only to instantly regret it upon being the victor?

So, the riffs appearing vulnerable and sometimes not of the traditional Crowbar fare, and no longer supported by the heavyweight vocal champion of agony, is “Sever the Wicked Hand” still a worthy record? I think it’s tough for me to view this as an album by its own merit seeing as the Crowbar discography prior to its release is so sturdy. Tracks like the over melodic “Let Me Mourn”, with its dismal opening riff, the rambling cuts “As I Become One” and “Protectors of the Earth”, the gallop riff off “Cleanse Me, Heal Me”, all four fine examples of the Crowbar formula lacking direction and punch, riffs either generic or simply ill-chosen from a songwriting standpoint; doom and death metal (with one lazy-assed drummer) simply don’t mix, it’s a shame because “Protectors” and “Cleanse Me” both proffer fine examples of steady Crowbar goodness, the bridge of the latter also totally crushing.

Even the dirge-cross-ballad tunes (such as “Liquid Sky and Cold Black Earth”) that made records like “Sonic Excess” such well-rounded, absolute blinding masterpieces tend to plod along with little payoff other than half-hearted emotion and full-on shitting glass. My one final complaint with “Sever the Wicked Hand” is that there appears to be so much chug; I don’t remember a Crowbar album falling back dependently on crunching open strings so plentifully, but maybe that’s just my memory and a general beef with the record.

I wonder if Kirk ever looks at himself naked in the mirror, and thinks about all the scars?

The class-A cuts are fucking awesome though despite occasional but ignorable glitches. The first two tracks are both fine mixtures of speed, groove and sludge; “Cemetary Angels” with a clichéd closing riff still packs a punch in “overcoming the obstacles”, typical-Crowbar fashion. The brick-shit-house simplicity of “As I Become One” can appear a touch stale, but the opening riff and closing leads are pure bliss. “A Farewell to Misery” is the typical lush Crowbar interlude, and then “I Only Deal in Truth” is more straight-up, mid-paced energy that faulters little. “Echoes in Eternity” is absolutely gorgeous, I will say, the main lead harmony a true tear-jerker, and the final grace to a shifty but overall satisfying record.

Maybe seven years out of the game takes the sting out some because we’ve gone so long without, maybe this album is weak sauce after so much time – Kirk does seem to have lost touch with the NOLA sound audacious of me to claim though it being thicker in his blood than… er… cholesterol? That was a low punch, so to make amends, “Sever the Wicked Hand” is a disappointing effort that in the end doesn’t change much my perception of one of metal’s greatest bands because the ingredients are much the same, just mixed awkwardly.

6,5

Information
Released: 2011
Label: E1 Entertainment
Website: Crowbar MySpace
Band
Kirk Windstein: guitars, vocals
Matt Brunson: guitars
Pat Bruders: bass
Tommy Buckley: drums

Tracklist
01. Isolation (Desperation)
02. Sever the Wicked Hand
03. Liquid Sky and Cold Black Earth
04. Let Me Mourn
05. The Cemetery Angels
06. As I Become One
07. A Farewell to Misery
08. Protectors of the Shrine
09. I Only Deal in Truth
10. Echo an Eternity
11.Cleanse Me, Heal Me
12. Symbiosis

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