EP Review: The Crawling – What We Leave Behind
Reviewed by NAME
2026 has been a busy year for The Crawling! A brand new live album in early 2026 gave us a glimpse into their crushing live sound, which comes to Bloodstock Winter Gathering this December! Until then, we get a glimpse of what the Northern Irish power trio have been up to in the studio in the shape of “What We Leave Behind”.
Only two tracks? This is going to be short and sweet. Right?
WRONG!
Short definitely, but certainly not sweet. See, The Crawling have never been a band to polish their sound in bells, whistles and other fancy studio magic. Whilst they recorded the drums at The Parlour Recording Studios (if it’s good enough for Napalm Death and The Haunted, surely it’s good enough for The Crawling), everything else was kept in house. Whilst this meant reduced access to the latest high tech recording equipment, The Crawling’s sound doesn’t need it. In fact, when trying to capture that bleak melancholic sound, it needs to feel raw and cavernous.
They shoot right from the hip with ‘A Song To Nurse The Sickness’ with five and a half minutes of death-doom glory. Whilst blazing lead guitar offers occasional glimpse of melody and hope, there’s an unmissable sense of dread and melancholy which shrouds the overall sound in suffocating clouds of darkness! The pace is low and bludgeoning, capturing that doom metal undertone. This delivers on their promise of being for fans of Swallow The Sun and for anybody else who likes their metal packed with piercing crushing riffs and a slice of despair.
Following on from my recent dive into Emma Ruth Rundle’s post-rock discography, heavy music isn’t always about crushing distortion and guttural vocals. Sometimes it’s that emotion that hits you like a freight train and the raw unfiltered honesty. Now, ‘Bound To The Negative (Requiem)’ is essentially a re-imagining of their older work. Whilst that original version had those elements in spades, this re-write is different. Very different. Stripped back with distorted guitars and growled vocals a distant memory. Even the drums are absent, leaving the clean guitars to pull double duty in providing a melodic pillar as well as anchoring the song’s rhythm. Any drums would crush the fragility of Andy’s vocals, and also the piano and string tandem that make an appearance later in the song. Yep, that stripped back minimalist approach leaves plenty of space to interpret the gut wrenching mournful taste of the lyrics whilst leaving space for reflection and contemplation. After all, isn’t that really the aim of heavy music?
Whilst other heavy bands hide behind layers of distortion, what The Crawling deliver does not need to be concealed beneath illusions of heaviness. “What We Leave Behind” is a blistering punch to the gut that leaves you nowhere to hide!
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