Band:	The Crawling
Album:	All Of This For Nothing
Style:	Death doom metal
Release date:	August 2023

01. March Of The Worm
02. Thy Nazerene
03. Another Vulture
04. Bound To The Negative
05. A Light We Cannot See
06. Leaving The Skin
07. Sparrow

“Life is a journey through a bleak, cold, harsh reality… that ends in a void of nothingness”. These are the words that The Crawling’s guitarist/vocalist Andy Clarke uses to describe All Of This For Nothing. Sounds apt for a death doom album, doesn’t it?

Looking at the beautiful cover art by Travis Smith, one immediately gets what these words mean. A foggy, cold, and snowy landscape, with some footsteps leading to a black void. One struggles through life’s hardships and pain, only to end up in a hole inside the earth. This album is all about the futility of existence, its cover art portrays this perfectly, and its title expresses this in a simple and comprehensive fashion.

Death doom metal is a fairly easy genre to play, but, for exactly this reason, it is a difficult one to play interestingly. Over the years, so many variations have been presented, but All Of This For Nothing captures the pure essence of death doom without doing anything out of the box. It is a straightforward, no-frills take on the genre, but with great songwriting and so many hooks that get imprinted on the brain from the first listen. The Peaceville three and early Katatonia are lurking in the distance throughout the album’s runtime, but The Crawling seem to have a more death metal kick than a sad, gothic one. The guitar leads are knives twisting inside your wounds, rather than lost loves breaking your heart. The riffs feel like they are guiding you to your end. The audible bass is unsettling, while the pounding drum beats are hard-hitting hammers nailing your coffin. And the songs are damn catchy, and, no, catchy death doom is not sacrilege. The militaristic drumming of “March Of The Worm”, the Bolt Thrower-esque, pulverizing riff of “Another Vulture”, the choruses and the superb exchange between clean and harsh vocals on “Thy Nazarene” and “Bound To The Negative” make a lasting impression, while the final three tracks also have their own standout moments.

The only criticism I have for the album, and it is a minor one, is that it sounds somewhat front-loaded to me. The band seems to have placed the strongest songs in the beginning, but that doesn’t mean that the material towards the end is not good enough; it’s just that the first four songs are way too spectacular for words. Then again, “Sparrow” is a track that a lot of death doom bands only dream that they could write one day. Mind you, the cassette and the vinyl have a different track sequence compared to the digital release at Bandcamp and other streaming platforms, and I wonder how these other two versions work in terms of flow and overall impression.

The Crawling released their first couple of albums back to back, in 2017 and 2018, but they took their time with their third, and, in my opinion, it is their best one. It’s not just the songwriting, the atmosphere, or the production that makes it stand out. It is the fact that it is deeply personal and real. It is the bitter truth.

“Failed, before our hopelessness
These nails will bind you tight
Our last goodbye
Abandon wretchedness
We gave our dreams, our memories, our lives
And so we die”