Crowpath

Four albums in for these Swedish noise mongers and what's changed? Nothing, which is hard to believe. How do you continue crafting songs this noisy, songs that bring to mind the wondrous racket of Knut and the mind-shifting grind of Antigama, without going nutty? How does the listener continue to sit through album after album of songs that are, let's face it, interchangeable? I don't know, but there are plenty of big questions like that in the metal world and when I'm thoroughly enjoying these 11 songs (which clock in at a refreshing 31 minutes) it doesn't matter. The drumming is pure gonzo, with octopus Erik Hall rattling away back there - one big fill. The title track opens the album with what is perhaps the band's most intense tune yet; it's wildly technical yet still packs a shockingly aggressive punch. "Fondling the Grotesque" covers the middle ground between Morbid Angel's slow grind and Eyehategod's basement, where the slime really lives. The respite from Crowpath's relentless tech-grind-sludge comes right in the middle, with the three-and-a-half minutes of noise and "gentle" riffing of "I Gryningen," and the "serenity" of instrumental closer "Retarded Angel." But, man, after those first four songs it's too late - the damage is done. Great stuff.