Albums

Album Review: 36 Crazyfists

[Album: The Tide And Its Takers]
[Label: Ferret Music]

It’s been a long journey for 36 Crazyfists to reach this point in their careers. They’ve overcome the tragic loss of their bassist, have relocated from Alaska to Oregon and changed records labels twice. Through it all they’ve always remained faithful to their bass-heavy aggressively original sound and retained a determination to be heard by as many fans as is humanly possible by touring endlessly. ‘The Tide And Its Takers’ is the metalcore outfit’s fifth full-length album and sees guitarist Steve Holt moving into the producer’s chair with Andy Sneap, continuing his mixing duties, by his side.

From the off it’s apparent that the band have gone even heavier as it bristles with an urgency and severity that dominates. ‘We Gave It Hell’, the forthcoming single, sears Brock Lindow’s murderous, power-scorched vocals onto a steady melodic bass groove. There’s still a sugar-sweet chorus lick that is sharp enough to sit happily within the menace around it. The slow melodic beginnings of ‘The Back Harlow Road’ introduces a more melodic way of thinking that throws the concrete breakdown slams into a whole new light.

Experimentation in a genre where the line between stunning and stricken is so fine certainly can be dangerous, but 36 Crazyfists are closer to the former with the fine-tuning they‘ve done. At times they overdo the sweet talk, as with the simpering ‘Waiting On A War’ finding itself painfully weak-sounding following the beefed-up low-end guts of ‘Clear The Coast’ (featuring Adam Jackson from Twelve Tribes). They score huge points in riposte with the pummelling intensity of ‘Absent Are The Saints’, a feast of gunshot drums and frazzled guitar riffs, and ’When Distance Is The Closest Reminder’ which rumbles along at a blistering pace when it‘s not dropping off into a smooth wash or a brick wall breakdown.

Sure, with the band trying out a new brutality in the vocal harmonies and sticking them up against delicate melodic twiddling it will probably have their more hardcore fans grabbing their noses and holding it at arms-length. For those not wearing rose-tinted spectacles prepare to be battered remorselessly by an album that will kick you senseless, give you a big cuddle, then wade in again.

For fans of: Killswitch Engage, Atreyu, Gwen Stacy
Band link = 36 Crazyfists

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