A pestilence applied to greying matters per social ingratiation and forced implant the delusion of purpose passed from one demented mind to another only prolongs the suffering of each individual. Sentience is hardly a precious gift to the organism but rather entrapment of a beast that’d in many cases be better served the chance to be a rutting, spitting and thrashing cave ape in the wild. Fixated upon the consequence of the individual actor and the ripples of dread they impose upon others the sojourn offered through the half-shut eyes of Lisburn, Northern Ireland-based melodic death/doom metal trio The Crawling examines the nature of the beast at a point of deeply resigned reflection. Corrosive, self-damning qualities soar in mind with shocks of deep-set remorse and spiteful intent as the melodrama of ‘All of This For Nothing‘ renders its itching thoughts. As it presses on through a bout of deeply nihilistic thought this third full-length album offers the frayed end of its proposed rope, the choice to step out from under the thumb or be pressed down through the gallows.

The Crawling formed back in 2014 between folks who’d been variously involved in the Belfast area death metal scenery with ties to Overoth, Zombified, and obviously they’ve been on Pete Clarke‘s (Strangle Wire, ex-Condemned) label GrindScene from the jump. While this factors into their sensibilities per a melodic/gothic death doom metal influenced sound with a bit of a grating edge the directive of Andy Clarke as vocalist/guitarist and main songwriter most clearly points the way as this group is more-or-less his own vision beyond the long on hiatus Honey For Christ, a somewhat accessible heavy metal influenced group. Cutting through the early discography of this band was admittedly a pain to start and not for lack of compelling depressive lyricism just, eh little in the way of guitar driven conviction. Their first EP (‘In Light of Dark Days‘, 2015) and LP (‘Anatomy of Loss‘, 2017) weren’t bad, above average considering what else was out in the wild world of death/doom adjacent work at the time but all felt tentative, chunking stand-offish to start. This hadn’t been due to amateurism but I’d venture those releases were overwrought, at least by comparison to the straight forward efficacy of ‘Wolves and the Hideous White‘ (2018), surely the album to warrant some hype for ‘All of This For Nothing‘ with its aggressive gnarl of doomed riffs, scraping chugged-at rhythms which’d spoken to the most nakedly grotesque moments of My Dying Bride, certain Officium Triste records and post-2010 October Tide.

We’ll have toss the marrow bone to the dogs at some point and consider British extreme doom-adjacent atmosphere, emotionally driven authorship, and a resting death metal face all key components of The Crawling‘s sound to the point of lumping them in with melodic death/doom metal which is related to (but not in proven debt of) the Peaceville three as it were. ‘Wolves and the Hideous White‘ seemed to have figured this in the process of its compositional outreach, a tempering of non specific mid-paced death metal jolts fused into fairly straight forward doom metal (read: ~five minute heavy rock) songcraft prone to resolve in memorable chorus. Whatever’d contributed to the knack on that album they’d captured some believable emotive quality on that record while amping up the guitar interest, hitting my radar for the same reasons I’ve huddled up with ‘All of This For Nothing‘ for the most part. A long walk towards “If you liked the last one, you’ll like this one.” but beyond that point we’re simply getting a more-and-better situation from these folks this time around with a tangible hook in hand in every case on this ~43 minute record.

There’s no mercy in it. — What makes ‘All of This For Nothing‘ worth talking about at all also points to directly to my reasoning for it being the trio’s best work to date, they’ve simply written catchier pieces and made each of the seven songs here count in such a way that each weighs upon the greater barrel that holds ’em considerably. Deeper stylized guitar arrangements with tightened, gloom-stricken hooks are of course a major part of it as the clip empties, leaving a hopeless yet engaged quality to their work. “March of the Worm” strikes right at it in this sense with its militaristic tremolo-picked opening salvo before some of the heavier death and doom metal riffs they’ve presented to date engage off the bat, probably far meaner than most would’ve expected The Crawling to get up front. “Another Vulture” speaks directly to Clarke‘s ear for creating tension in tentative melodic reveal while also featuring a main rhythm guitar thread which has the one-guitarist death/doom metal feeling in its arrangement, hence the comparisons made earlier, and this approach compounds even more resolutely with standout single “Thy Nazarene“. This is probably the tuneful peak of the full listen as the main momentum of the album realizes.

The strongest section of the album for my own taste comes at that midpoint as the aforementioned tension of earlier pieces realizes a greater extreme within the longest piece on the album, “Bound to the Negative”, a fine example of death/doom metal which balances restless atmosphere, the listless feeling of doom metal and bursts of death metal. This is less an innovation and more a fine example of The Crawling at their most dynamic yet miserable, a feeling which bleeds into the far more expressive dramatism of “Leaving the Skin”. Though they’ve leaned into a melodic metal role on that piece more than the rest of the album tends to it works for the sake of discovering new textures and range within ‘All of This For Nothing‘ even as the tone of the album begins to point toward closure. Otherwise, I’ve few particularly deep notes to serve the album overall. I enjoyed the referential nods within the guitar progressions we find on “A Light We Cannot See” and I suppose I overlooked “Sparrow” a bit since it’d been out as a single for a couple of years prior.

Without stepping too far beyond the intended morose, singularly set torment of the full listen The Crawling extend their craft through tightened feats here on this third and most matured release. Largely self-recorded/produced yet finding their best overall sense of precision, the bands own hand helps to direct this record toward a clearer voice and this allows for the mood of the record to snarl and woe about without obfuscating the detail available. In most respects ‘All of This For Nothing‘ is a refinement and a follow-up to the expectations set by ‘Wolves and the Hideous White‘, retaining the easier flow of that release which crunching up the aggressive side of the band just enough that they still sound mean. Though their style will likely appeal most directly to the melodic and gothic metal demented side of death/doom metal it never feels like they’ve simply been slotted there for the sake of flippancy or convenience but rather the emotional heft of their work sources its sincerity in that realm of authorship. A moderately high recommendation.

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