Crawl Below – Its Ministers on Earth
Release Date: 14th January 2022
Label: Lawnmowerjetpack Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Blackened Death Doom.
FFO: Paradise Lost (Draconian Times), Candlemass, Death.
Review By: David Oberlin
Crawl Below is a one-man endeavour that shares its vibes with a labour of love. With five releases now under the belt, Charlie ‘Sad Eyes’ Platteborze has been a very busy body while the world waits in seeming purgatory. Its Ministers on Earth is the newest and fourth album. While it is no masterpiece, it at least offers a grim and dark sound to phase the literal worldly bleakness into oblivion.
It is cited upon the mighty Crawl Below Encyclopedia Metallum page that the genres post-black metal, punk and folk metal are Sad Eyes primary ingredients. Three unholy and paganistic rituals that conjure forth the demons of Its Ministers on Earth. Which is all good and well, but excluding post-black metal, the punk and folk-metal bandwagons are what inspired the proto-black metal sound; is that a Candlemass robe in your closet or are you just pleased to see me?
Its Ministers on Earth as described above is almost an antithetical sound to the waves of cheesy synth pop that has been jumped on by right-leaning scaremongers of recent. It is a tale as old as time, disco vs. rock; new romanticism vs. death rock; pop punk vs prog rock. You get the gist. In this sense, Crawl Below quacks like a duck and walks like a duck. The 80s inspiration is dead on point, and so too is the desaturation and lack of forced enthusiasm of its sister genre. In its place is a moribund tale of veiled threats channelled through nihilistic despair.
Production-wise, it sounds like it was recorded in the late eighties. Which is, of course, a testament to the authenticity Platteborze brings to his latest incantation. Technically, this is a very competent album. It is just a pity that beneath its cold dead skin, it’s just not that interesting.
(3 / 5)
