Crowbar – Sever The Wicked Hand

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After being quite prolific between 1991 and 2001, releasing seven albums, Sever The Wicked Hand is only Crowbar’s second release in the last ten years, coming six years after Lifesblood For The Downtrodden, and bringing with it their busiest touring for some time. Essentially Sever The Wicked Hand is, happily, classic Crowbar. After so many years away there’s often a fear that a band either won’t be able to recapture their form, or will have changed their musical outlook and come back with something substantially different (this can either be very good or very bad), but here they sound like they recorded this straight after the last album. Several of the tracks could slot directly into their back catalogue/live set immediately, although the one they chose to do that with (The Cemetery Angels), and make a video for, is probably not the strongest. It’s a fast Motörhead-ish track, which has never been Crowbar’s strongest suit as it tends to lack their established identity. They are far more memorable in either slow, sludge mode, or on faster tracks which have more interesting stoner-influenced riffs (not dissimilar to the kind Kirk writes for Down – As I Become One is a good example on this disc). Monolithic highlights are Let Me Mourn, Isolation (Desperation) and Symbiosis, with clean instrumental A Farewell To Misery changing up the mood mid-album, and As I Become One and I only Deal In Truth as the pick of the faster tracks. Prime Crowbar which fans will lap up.

Written by Andy Lye
More: 2011, Albums, Doom Metal, Quick.Play Reviews, Sludge, Crowbar