ALBUM REVIEW: Host Rider – Zebadiah Crowe
The London based duo of ZEBADIAH CROWE may just be one of the more impressive and imaginative acts within the UK, a scene already saturated with fantastic bands. Incorporating elements of grindcore, punk and industrial music into their sound, the bands sound is as fierce, powerful and effective as you might expect, with two previous full-lengths standing as a testament to their musical talent, and establishing the band as one of the more criminally overlooked acts within the extreme metal underground. Their latest album, Host Rider, is another amazing piece of music which not only stands as the band’s best output so far, but also, perhaps one of the stand out albums of the year too.
Knucklebones proves to be a powerful and dramatic way to start this record, with thunderous drums, feral vocals and crunching guitars vying with a heady atmosphere to create grating, yet epic, opening statement that immediately draws the listener in and holds their attention, setting an incredibly lofty bar for the rest of the music to surpass. A Tincture of Malic sees the tighter, industrial elements that peppered the sound of the previous song to the fore more prominently, with a dense, percussive undercurrent and bombastic edge give this fairly fierce and acerbic piece of music a sharp, clinical edge that provides a great contrast with the dirty quality of the rest of the sound, resulting in a darkly mechanical aspect that makes this music all the more appealing. This song ends rather abruptly, launching headlong into the visceral and chaotic Mantel of Nails and Orphan Skin, another muscular juggernaut of a track with a savage, rhythmic style and a particularly sludgy, tar thick bass hook that work extremely well and gives everything a solid, crushing groove that it’s very hard not to get engrossed by.
The Neon Goat of Crimson Grief, with its more intricate drumming and frenzied, jarring guitar flourishes and vocals, provides a hint of grindcore to the proceedings, which only serves to make this offering seem more energetic and discordant, whilst still holding on to the polished and precise sound that underpins this whole record. A Horror to the Eyes of Saintly Men possesses some brilliant, dirge-like guitar parts and especially rabid and demented vocal deliveries, along with more focused rhythms, which ultimately help to elevate this song above the ones that have preceded it, proving to be one of the more impressive outings on an already stellar album.
Godblind and Destitute, with its haunting, immersive opening moments and generally frenetic, primal sound, injects just the right amount of punk into ZEBADIAH CROWE‘s sound, which, combined with the rawness of the guitars and bestial vocal style of display, gives this a much more aggressive and weighty sound, the the counterpoint of the soaring atmosphere that cloaks the rest of the music giving this song a huge and expansive sound. Wormhavens Dance, much likes its predecessor, sprinkles some noxious punk tropes into the music, with the cacophonous, speed driven moments that make up most of this tracks sound giving this a sound that is at points claustrophobic, with a well placed, anthemic side that helps to bring this record to a close perfectly.
As the suitably eye-catching and garish cover art implies, ZEBADIAH CROWE are far from your typical black metal band. In fact, it could be said that this doesn’t resemble many of the black metal acts currently operating within the UK’s vast, talented underground, with only a razor sharp guitar sound and acerbic, snarling vocals anchoring it in the genre at all. The music itself, with its tight, pulsing rhythm sections and overbearing Industrial flourishes, makes it sound more akin to a more forward thinking grindcore act like ANAAL NATHRAKH or FUKPIG than most black metal bands. Host Rider is a refreshing take on the genre that stands out for all the right reasons, making it one of the more memorable and distinctive extreme metal releases of the year to date.
Rating: 9/10
Host Rider is out now via Lore Breaker Records.
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