AN NCS PREMIERE: WARCRAB — “KRAKEN ARISE”

 

For my comrades and myself here at our putrid site, WarCrab’s second album, Scars of Aeons, was one of the biggest, brightest, and stupendously heaviest discoveries of 2016. Grant Skelton named it to his list of the year’s best death metal albums. I included a track from the album on our list of 2016’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. And Andy Synn praised the album in his review with these pungent words:

“With a sound that can best be described as a humongous hybrid of the chugging, churning assault of classic Bolt Thrower, the swaggering, sludge-soaked grooves of Crowbar, and the sheer, merciless morbidity of Autopsy at their doomiest, Scars of Aeonsis one heck of a weighty listen. There are riffs here which are heavy enough to break an elephant’s back, and slithering grooves as thick and meaty as an anaconda on steroids.

“In fact I’m surprised this album doesn’t come with an attached safety warning and a recommendation that listeners wear a hard-hat at all times in order to prevent cranial trauma. It really is that [expletive deleted] heavy!”

The news that these sludge/death heavyweights would be releasing a third album this summer (through Transcending Obscurity Records) was thus cause in these quarters for a mixture of excitement and dread — the skull fractures from the last record are almost healed, but new ones will undoubtedly now be opened, and there’s no getting back those inches of height lost in the last pounding, only more to lose as WarCrab drive us into the pavement once more.

 

 

These were only immediate guesses from the first announcements. They might have been wrong; maybe the band had mellowed in three years’ time. But the two tracks released for public consumption so far — including the new one we’re presenting today — prove those guesses to be correct.

Like its title, the music on “Kraken Arise” is the rising of a deep-water leviathan of sound, loaded with writhing, tentacular riffs and an atmosphere of heartless, inhuman menace. But WarCrab haven’t moderated their penchant for gigantic hammering grooves, or rumbling, mauling, tank-attack destructiveness, and this track is brutishly packed with both. It also features scorching vocal intensity and freakish soloing. Yes, it is exciting. And yes, it will take some inches off your height (on the plus side, it will made it easier for you to bend down and pick up your teeth after you listen.)

 

 

The name of WarCrab’s new album-juggernaut is Damned in Endless Night, and Transcending Obscurity Records will release it on August 30th. It’s recommended for fans of Bolt Thrower, Crowbar, Eyehategod, Eremit, Warlord UK, Conan, and The Dead. Pre-order links are below, along with a stream of the previously released track, which will enfold you “In the Arms of Armageddon“, and of course our own premiere.

PRE-ORDER:
Bandcamp: https://warcrabuk.bandcamp.com/
EU: https://transcendingobscurity.aisamerch.de/shop-en
US: https://transcendingobscurity.aisamerch.com/

WARCRAB:
https://facebook.com/WarCrab666

TRANSCENDING OBSCURITY:
https://www.facebook.com/transcendingobscurityrecords
https://tometal.com/store/