Once you start listening to the new Crawl Below album, “Around The Circle, Around The Snake,” I can almost guarantee that you will become paralyzed with a mixture of hallucinogenic fear and fascination. When I first started listening to the album I felt as though I was walking around a surrealistic horror themed art exhibit, minus the douchey looking art snobs wearing fedoras and drinking shots of wheatgrass.
Charlie Sad Eyes, the mastermind behind Crawl Below, has always proven to be a dynamic musician willing to explore different styles of music on each release. From black metal to doom metal to even acoustic punk, Crawl Below’s discography is full of variety. I do believe that this allows Charlie to construct very unique sounding releases. If you liked how the last Crawl Below album sounded, then do not expect the next one to be a carbon copy, because that is just not how Charlie approaches recording music. Even though this new Crawl Below album does take a step in a different direction compared to the previous two albums, I still believe the production and attention to detail is profoundly present, which is why the album hooks you right away.
“Around The Circle, Around The Snake,” is a truly atypical sounding album featuring such a plethora of haunting arrangements. The album begins with a ghastly sounding organ composition which reminded me of something from out of a 70's occult themed horror movie. During the first song, “I Sacramentum,” I definitely felt that Charlie was going for a more cinematic approach on this album, but I did not truly comprehend the magnitude of unorthodox sounding creativity until I finished the entire album. Also, I really liked how he incorporated a very Darkthrone-esque style guitar riff to begin the second track, “II Reveltio.” The second song seemed to contain even more gloomy atmospheric noises and doomy spectral vocals as if Charlie was trying to summon some evil force from beyond to come and do his diabolical bidding.
The third track on the album, “III Desperatio,” blends together dark synth wave with doom metal elements, as well as some industrial touches to establish an unconventional sounding landscape. Even though the album is not written where you hear a bludgeoning riff followed by another bludgeoning riff, the compositions capture your imagination by bringing together mesmerizing melodies with hypnotic distorted atmospheres. Again, Crawl Below has a history of not writing the same sounding album, but I cannot stress the importance of how Charlie is a true savant when it comes to production. Hell, even if you are not a fan of the album’s direction and unorthodox approach by coming off as a disturbing cinematic film score, the overall attention to detail when pertaining to the recording quality is extremely impressive.
Conceptually, musically and creatively, “Around The Circle, Around The Snake,” checks all the boxes if you are looking for a new album that does not sound like what everyone else is doing at the moment within the metal/rock community. Crawl Below continues to be one of Charlie’s most striking musical projects which is saying something since he is involved in a variety of solid bands (Low Moments being another favorite of mine). Now, do I see a thrash metal elitist who wears a Municipal Waste shirt and smells like a brewery taking a liking to this album? Probably not, but then again the spellbinding atmospheric arrangements and sinister yet comforting doom like touches are very persuasive, just like how that Count Dracula was with all the ladies.
Check out the track, "II Revolatio" below:
Crawl Below Bandcamp:
https://crawlbelow.bandcamp.com/album/around-the-circle-around-the-snake
This I really really liked listening to II Revolatio. So much creativity and the music is very distinctive.
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