Let’s dispense with the obvious; you’re not cracking into the new Crowbar album with impatient, toe-tapping curiosity as to what far-flung new direction the crushing Cajuns have undertaken. They’re never going to flit about with jazzy breakdowns, futuristic bursts of electronica or splashy prog noodling. No, the compositional manifest of these 30-year sludge purveyors is as unpredictable as the sun rising and setting: concrete-battered riffs sneering with blackened tritonal leads and the unholy roar of guitarist and vocalist Kirk Windstein.
With their 11th studio outing, the Louisiana-bred metallers have doubled down on their unyielding commitment to melodic sludginess with 10 new apocryphal dirges, oozing with chunky riffage, lumbering tempos and snarling couplets like, ‘If you grow a set of balls, it just might change your life’, from the record’s bludgeoning highlight, The Enemy Beside You. Beyond their enduring gravitational heaviness, Crowbar have consistently paced themselves ahead of their genre with a penchant for embedding absurdly catchy hooks into the walls of their riffs and concussive tracks like Embrace The Light and the galloping I Am The Storm showcase this prowess with chest-pounding swagger. Recalling the corrosive ferocity of their strongest efforts, The Serpent Only Lies is steady, infectious and heavy as fuck.
