CROWPATH

"Son of Sulphur" is a concept story about a pyromaniac and opens with a couple of tracks telling of his crimes and then the third track on the album "Chased, Caught, and Charged", tells about his capture, but the lyrics for the remaining tracks are actually a bit more vague. I understand the rest of the story as if our protagonist is locked up and is haunted by his illness, and we get a little glimpse of his past with a drunk stepfather, inflicting a trauma on his child soul, which results in his pyromanic tendencies. I interpret the lyrics to the closing track "End in Water" as if the protagonist commits suicide by drowning (...the irony of a pyromaniac drowning isn´t lost on me). It´s a bleak and unpleasant story which suits the extremity of the music perfectly.

...and stylistically "Son of Sulphur" is an ultra extreme album, combining the chaos and speed of grindcore, with the filth and aggression of hardcore, the brutality of death metal, the heaviness of doom/sludge, and the creative ideas and adventurous nature of technical/progressive metal. But whatever you chose to label the music style on "Son of Sulphur", it´s an interesting and very challenging listen. The vocals are a combination of aggressive hardcore/grindcore shouting and death grunts. The riffs are very rarely "normal" metal riffs, but more frequently twisted and dissonant fretboard excursions, while the drums play odd-metered and very brusy patterns and beats. It all sounds like one big uncontrolled chaos (which it certainly isn´t) and it takes a few spins to fully grasp and appreciate Crowpath´s vision.

Everything is performed with great skill and conviction, and the raw yet detailed sound production helps the material shine. To my ears the experimental but more mature songwriting, the high level musicianship, and the concept lyrics, all result in "Son of Sulphur" being a step up from "Red on Chrome (2004)" and Crowpath can be very proud of this sophomore release. A 4 star (80%) rating is fully deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)

Stylistically Crowpath play an incredibly intense, chaotic, and dissonant type of extreme metal. The vocals on the album are aggressive shouting type hardcore vocals and although there are some death- and grindcore traits to be found in the music, it's not right to call it neither. This is definitely not your typical one-dimensionally blasting type grindcore release and certainly not you're standard death metal release either. So maybe technical/chaotic extreme metal is a better overall description of the band's music. The music is very complex and technically very well played, with constantly shifting drum patterns, breaks, and tempo changes. A schizophrenic sounding, 'ber distorted, and dissonant wall of noise. The word "noise" should be interpreted as something positive in this respect, just so I'm not misunderstood. The atmosphere is bleak and aggression is in the high seat.

"Red on Chrome" is not an easy album to get into, and the distorted and noisy sounding production probably won't help someone challenged by the already chaotic nature of the music. The music and the sound production suit each other well though and a more clean sounding production probably wouldn't have suited the music in the same way.

Overall the high energy level, the chaotic soundscape, and the complexity of the playing are sure to challenge even seasoned extreme metal listeners. 13 tracks distributed over a 29:59 minutes long playing time and then the mayhem is over and you'll probably be left exhausted, bruised, and broken. I dare you to jump aboard this one-way ticket to hell. Repeated listens over several years have convinced me to buy said ticket and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.