CROWPATH

Willowtip are known for their nose for tasty underground projects, and CROWPATH are no exception. The music of these guys is a dirty, murky slime in which jellyfish-like shreds of sodden skin and long serpentine backs of venomous eels keep flashing by. The absence of any instrumental systematicity, smeared sounds, and attempts to eradicate all norms of composition in their work — CROWPATH strive to instill a sense of bewilderment in the listener, to overwhelm them, and they do so superbly. "Red On Chrome" is not metal in the full sense — it is rather the extreme envelope of core sub-styles. There are no obvious flaws in the work, but in my opinion it lacks conceptual depth — the almost cinematic madness of "Red On Chrome" simply must carry brilliant intellectual substance within it. I live in hope that on the recently released "Son Of Sulphur," the band developed this aspect as well.