Stormcrow Enslaved in Darkness 12″ reissue
The other day I was chatting with a younger punk about “crust classics’’ and basically trying to enlighten him with learned references to obscure Greek crust, as one normally does. When the conversation veered toward the ’00s, I realized we had very different perspectives. While I saw ’00s “stenchcore revival’’ bands like HELLSHOCK, SANCTUM or AFTER THE BOMBS as modern and contemporary, he saw them as old school acts, as irrevocably ancient as ’80s or ’90s ones (and really, just like anything that happened before he was born). The cycle of (crust) life. STORMCROW epitomised that stenchcore revival sound, and I remember loving them to death and certainly overplaying them to the great distress of my roommates when this came out in 2005. The name comes from a DEVIATED INSTINCT song and the cover was drawn by artist extraordinaire Mid from that very band, so you knew full well where you were wandering when playing Enslaved in Darkness. I still blast this filthy metal crust monster on a regular basis and lip sync on the devastating first number’s grizzly bear vocals. STORMCROW was maybe the heaviest of that short-lived wave of bands, as they had that dirty, doom-laden, organic sludge metal vibe to their sound while still giving the impression that actual cavemen were playing. The Californian metal crust school of the late ’80s/early ’90s and its sonorities could be a point of comparisons (like early MINDROT, A//SOLUTION, or even SKAVEN), as well as BOLT THROWER or 13, but STORMCROW certainly brought something fresh—in a fetid way—to the old school crust game that HELLSHOCK redefined in the ’00s. This LP is an absolute classic that has been known to make crust pants walk by themselves. Play loud.