Crows – Better off dead
After listening to this album a couple of times I couldn’t help myself thinking: I know this band… After a while I realized I actually own a split 7” with Drainland (it’s been way to quiet around that band… do they still exist?). The band actually rerecorded the song Suburbia nervosa of that split for this LP. If you know that split you know what to expect from this band: dark energy flowing through your speakers, structured just enough to make it hit you in the face even harder. This band pummels through ten songs full of rage. It’s not that difficult to maintain a crazy level of rage on only one side of a 7”, keeping it interesting for an entire LP, that’s something quite different. On Better of dead Crows shows you it can be done: they refuse to back down and just keep on going until the record ends, leaving you numb. Only very little melody is added, but still the record is divers enough thus giving each song a character of it’s own.
The lyrics are fitting for this type of music; sketching an extremely bleak view on life and nihilistic to the bone. Nothing really matters, everything sucks and as they put it on Enter the crownado: “…I’m not pro-anything anymore” and on both Power trip and Better of dead they conclude: “Better of dead”. These lyrics are blurted out in short bursts. Seven out of 10 songs don’t make the 2,5 minutes mark. Album closer is a strange beast though, lasting almost 10 minutes. You will not get bored during these 10 minutes as they are at least as intense as any other song on the album. On this song some stoner riffs are added to the mix, a welcome treat after so much violence. But don’t think this will last very long as the band shifts back to their natural habitat soon enough…
This is one of the best dark records I’ve heard this year. If you are into some angry, dark music I suggest you do yourself a favor: get this!
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