AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: CROWDEAD — “EVERYTHING ENDS”

On October 13th the Italian band (from Mantua) Crowdead will release their second album, Tearing Your Soul Apart. It was born, we are told, from “a moment of despair,” with each track conveying “a sensation of unease towards a world that, more often than not, is unfair”. They “take a trip inside ourselves among charred bodies, condemned souls, and grinning demons”.

Dark sentiments, to be sure, perhaps especially for a band whose music is branded “groove metal,” and they’re further reflected in the theme of “Everything Ends“, the album track we’re premiering today through a well-made official video. As the band explain:

“Everything Ends” shows how everything can come to a close, and how a person can end up coughing blood so as to not suffer anymore. With this video we want to show that humans are willing to destroy themselves as long as other people can be happy.

photo by Giorgia De Biasi

Lyrically, the song is in keeping with that theme, expressing pain and lethal rage in stark terms, and in the video blood does flow from the throat of vocalist Roberto Renoffio (who joined the band after they released their debut album Malphas).

Crowdead‘s music is influenced by such bands as Pantera, Lamb of God, and Sepultura, and you can detect those influences in this new song, but Crowdead aren’t mere mimics.

The song is definitely a vicious and heavy-grooved marauder, anchored by skull-busting percussion, gut-punching bass belligerence, and a rapidly jolting riff that resembles artillery firing, or a phalanx of big jackhammers devoted to demolition — and the vocals are scalding in their acidic intensity.

But while the band continue to clobber the listener, they also work in a swirling and seething melody that sounds emotionally bleak and broken. And when the blood flows, the music doubles down on its ruthless jackhammering destructiveness before fading away into a dismal denouement with female spoken words.

We mentioned earlier that Crowdead are influenced by Sepultura, and the new album’s closing track is indeed a cover of Sepultura‘s “Territory“, which includes a guest vocal appearance by Alessandro “Alle” Rabitti from the band Injury. But the nihilism that fuels Crowdead’s world view also pervades its rendition of that cover, as well as the album’s other eight tracks.

Tearing Your Soul Apart was recorded, mixed, and mastered at Audiocore Studio, and it includes cover artwork by Stefano Cavazzini and Giorgia De Biasi. Stefano De Rossi and Giorgia De Biasi created the band’s logo. The album will be available on CD and digital formats, and on major streaming platforms.

CROWDEAD are:
Roberto Renoffio – Vocals
Matteo Usberti – Guitars
Andrea Bissolati – Bass
Stefano Bertozzi – Drums

PRE-ORDER:
https://crowdead.bandcamp.com/album/tearing-your-soul-apart

CROWDEAD Online:
https://crowdead.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Crowdeadmetal
https://www.instagram.com/crowdeadmetal
https://open.spotify.com/artist/4zKD19WVcOA31dYA514IyL