85%
Australia is flush with bands producing quality output at the moment, particularly in the eastern states, but a quick dig through whoever you get your music through will soon show you how wrong it is to ignore what is happening over in deepest, darkest WA.
Crypt Crawler are one such example, a modern take on traditional death metal, with enough technicality and progressiveness thrown in to be easily identified with the likes of originators Death, without aping their sound.
Opening with a bass solo The Mouth of Death eases the listener in before squeezing their neck with a familiar death metal stomp. Ramping up the pace, the follow up one-two of the title track and Force Fed to the Dead show off just how good the band are when the pace begins to pick up, both tracks taking as much from late 80s thrash attack as the death metal scene.
It’s not all deliberate, head-belting at great speed, even though that can be fun when it’s done as well as this. Crypt Crawler take a few decidedly slower, more Obituary-orientated shifts in the middle of the track list, beginning with Inherent Complexion that heaves under its opening guitar dirge, twisting slowly before snapping back towards a thrashier element and then back with vocalist Marco Ieritano doing his best Donald Tardy impression, gargling through broken glass.
Best in show award goes to The Avaricious Ones, a twisting turning delight, showing off all facets of the band on one of the shortest tracks here. They again turn to their wide range of influences, hanging onto every riff as fast as they can play them, followed up again with a heavy dirge of riffs on Horrors of Humanity.
Future Usurper runs out of steam towards the end, with everything having already been done elsewhere on the album and the drama and tension held early on begins to fade. Sure, you still can’t guess what the change up is, but by now you have come to expect it a little. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t get on board and give this album a solid listen or 20. In the modern world you can pick and choose how long any album runs. Another world-beating album made right here in Australia by a band hopefully standing on the edge of the world stage.
