Reviews list for Crowbar - Sonic Excess in Its Purest Form (2001)

“Sonic Excess in Its Purest Form” is probably the most accurate album-title-description of the music therein that I’ve ever come across. Crowbar has done exceptionally well continuing to play old school Sludge and keep it top quality without changing their sound much with the times, and this album is just more of that. Plenty of Doom influence, some occasional seasonings of Groove and Metalcore, but otherwise pure, old school Sludge.

This is an ugly and dense slab of audio, focusing on themes of drug abuse and addiction, depression, self-hatred, all the classic Sludge Metal fair. There are bursts of manic energy which add great dynamics to the album, but much of this Sludge is slow and doomy. It sounds like getting buried under fresh concrete. Most of the music is simple enough, relying on the sheer heaviness to deliver, but the guitar has some really great riffs and leads that make the songs quite memorable for the genre.

My favorite part of this are Kirk’s desperate, dirty vocals. They’re absolutely perfect for this style, and I’d rank him among my favorite harsh vocalists. There’s so much emotion in his wretched snarl, and he holds notes despite growling like a cornered animal. The lyrics combine with the vocal performance to flawlessly deliver the pleading cries of someone who’s been down too long and is partly to blame for their own misery.

It's not perfect, though. The songs that lean more into Groove or Metalcore territory, that is being more rhythmic instead of moody or melodic, are weaker. When the band focuses more on just being heavy and chuggy, it gets a bit… boring. Unfortunately, that’s slightly under half the tracks. I would say the highs here are the band at their best, at least up to this point, but as a full album, it’s not the masterpiece it’s made out to be. Earlier releases such as Time Heals Nothing and the Self-Titled album are more consistent quality-wise. Still, one of the best examples of Sludge Metal you’re going to find.

I am currently endeavouring to fill some glaring gaps in my Fallen knowledge and Crowbar are one such omission. I have heard several tracks whilst compiling playlists for the Fallen, but album-wise I have only listened to their latest offering, 2022's Zero and Below, in it's entirety. Whenever I have encountered the band I have enjoyed their breed of sludge metal very much, so I figured it was high time I came to grips with arguably their best received album, Sonic Excess in Its Purest Form.

Well, by kicking off with an absolute beauty of a slab of sludgy awesomeness in opener, The Lasting Dose, they gave themselves a hard act to follow and an uphill struggle to maintain such a high level of quality for the entire three-quarters of an hour runtime. This track is a perfect balance between crushing heaviness and a pathos-infused, melancholy air, which is a tricky balancing act to carry off successfully, but they pull it off to devastating effect here, to the point where it reminds me a little of Patrick Walker's Warning - yes it's that good! So, after such an impressive opener you could he forgiven in thinking that the rest of the album may struggle to maintain the quality and while it is true that, at least for me, the other ten tracks fall a little short in comparison, this is still an impressive album.

My biggest issue with sludge is often in the vocal department and a lot of bands walk a bit of a tightrope, often tipping over into unlistenability for me, but Kirk Windstein has a gruffness to his delivery that ensures he never becomes "shouty", which is the point at which a band will lose me. The riffs are titanic and the production on the guitars is devastating, giving them a planet-crushing weight that suits those sludge-laden riffs perfectly, especially on the slower material. The riffing itself as well as being ridiculously heavy, is also tinged with that edge of melancholic introspection that is the real heart of top-drawer doom metal. Tony Costanza's drumming is simple and effective and, along with Jeff Okoneski's rumbling bass is the rock-solid foundation from which Windstein and Sammy Duet can launch those withering riff-barrages. The lyrics are perfectly legible despite the instrumental heft and with such memorable riffs, this is the kind of album you can suddenly find yourself singing along to.

There is a variation in tempo of the tracks to a certain extent but, personally, I find that it is the slower stuff that is most devastating, particularly Lasting Dose and Repulsive in Its Splendid Beauty. This is not only an album I will be returning to, but it is also one I will be seeking a physical copy of, such has it impressed me.