By: Charlie Butler
Album Type: Full Length
Dare Released: 10/02/2017
Label: Moment Of Collapse
Cranial have honed their Earth-shattering attack to
razor-sharp perfection and expand the scope of their music to galactic levels
of grandeur. The band are a relentless
riff engine, churning out a constant flow of thick sludge, like Neurosis
channelling the almighty crunch of early Mastodon. “Dark
Towers
1). Dark
2). Towers
3). Bright
4). Lights
The Review:
The debut LP
from Würzburg’s Cranial
was high on my list of most anticipated heavy releases of 2017. “Dark Towers
Apart from
the brief electronic passages that introduce each track, the band don’t deviate
far from the sonic blueprint laid out on their killer debut EP “Dead
Ends”. Instead Cranial have honed their Earth-shattering
attack to razor-sharp perfection and expand the scope of their music to
galactic levels of grandeur.
All of the
hallmarks of post-metal are present here; epic ten minute compositions, seismic
shifts in dynamics, crushing riffs, however what sets Cranial apart from their peers
is the venom in their delivery, all of the smooth edges have been filed away to
leave only the heaviest and nastiest elements. The band are a relentless riff
engine, churning out a constant flow of thick sludge, like Neurosis channelling the
almighty crunch of early Mastodon. This is best exemplified by the
cataclysmic ending of “Dark”. Just when you think the dust
has settled on the track, an ominous riff slowly moves into view which, when
fully unleashed, feels like it could level all buildings in a ten mile radius,
like a Godzilla-sized version of Sumac.
There are
quieter moments in amongst the carnage which serve to enrich the atmosphere.
The band pair delayed guitars with glacial doom and harsh
vocals to great effect in ”Dark” and create a hazy cloud of
menace atop dirty metronomic basslines in the mid-section of “Bright” to
heighten the drama. All of this only serves to heighten the colossal impact
when they return to maximum volume.
Cranial take a genre that now
often sounds slick and safe and strip it back to its raw essence to make it
furious and alive once more. “Dark Towers
“Dark Towers
