Crowbar – Zero and Below (Review)

Here, once again we have an example of an album that thoroughly succeeds without trying anything much exciting, new or brave. Zero and Below simply is Sludge, sometimes slow, sometimes fast, pretty melancholic most of the time, but without getting whiny, and heavy as hell. Every song on this album pressures through your auditory canals and leaves a trail of sad devastation. Massive riffs meet a powerful, full-bodied sound and a voice with corners, edges, curves, boiling water and affordable heating costs.

“The Fear That Binds You” already gives a clear marching direction and tunes the inclined listener and whoever else wants to feel addressed to what will follow during the next 43 minutes. Good moods are rare, the mood remains gloomy, the result tremendous. If there is an album that should really accompany you during bad times, then it’s this one, because here you feel understood, well taken care of and grounded. The opening riff of “Her Evil is Sacred” is so damn heavy and powerful that you just have to love it if you’re into this exact kind of music. “Confess to Nothing” sounds a bit like Pantera in their particularly wistful days, only way more awesome, while headbanging to “Chemical Godz” is just impossible to resist.

And those who like it really black will have their fun (even though you can’t really call it that) with the evocative “Denial of the Truth“. “Reanimating a Lie” then once again pushes you really nice to the front before the title track marks a perfect conclusion. The songs in between are all awesome as well, by the way. The whole album simply works from front to back, is perfectly staged, bangs like the shovel of an excavator and is an absolute must for all those who need a solid punch in the pit of the stomach and the feelings underneath. Give yourselves this chunk. You almost wish you had a heartbreak, a blow of fate or the next utility bill again, just to be able to empathize even better.