Crowbar – the godfathers of sludge and doom metal – return this month with their tenth studio album, Symmetry In Black. The trouble that the New Orleans outfit have been plagued with for much of their career is that they set the bar so high with their self-titled sophomore record. Crowbar (the album) was an immediate legacy in its own right and remains one of the quintessential releases of the genre as it enters it’s 21st year of existence.
Symmetry In Black stands to change all that.
Opening with the ferocious ‘Walk With Knowledge Wisely’, Crowbar are able to tie together everything that they do so well; a palpable mixture of their thrash-tinged musical tendencies and vocalist Kirk Windstein’s slow, low growl that has become the blueprint for doom and sludge musicians the world over.
‘Symmetry In White’ follows and just oozes the quintessential doom sound, including a bass guitar so low that you’re sure the strings are about to fall off, before a closing section that will rock you like a double barrel shotgun.
‘Reflection of Deceit’ is a particular stand-out track, as Windstein’s guttural roar and the soaring soundscape invokes a break-out of goosebumps. The closing third quite possibly shows Crowbar at their absolute best, with the lines “Accept my spirit/Come and see/My eyes wide open/Endlessly” sure to haunt you for the rest of the day – in a good way.
Meanwhile, ‘Amaranthine’ breaks the album down in stunning and touching fashion, before ‘Shaman of Belief’ launches a vicious sonic assault of self-proclamation on a titanic scale. ‘Symbolic Suicide’ goes hell for leather on all fronts and is by far the most abrasive track on the album, and instrumental album closer ‘The Piety of Self-Loathing’ will leave you begging for more.
Seasoned Crowbar fans will valiantly defend the eponymous 1993 album as the band’s best work, but Symmetry In Black will make that argument a very tough one indeed. This album is the perfect way for Crowbar to commemorate 25 years of existence and will surely be a staple of year-end lists, as rock music has just found a new forerunner for album of the year.
