Swiss post-sludgers The Crotals will release their new full-length, Horde, on Sept. 7 through Tenacity Music. It is the second album from the Lausanne-based four-piece behind 2015’s exclamatory Fuel! Flames! Blast! (review here), and it marks the expansion of the band from a trio to a four-piece with the inclusion of Randy Schaller on vocals. Where previously guitarist Guy Borel was the long scream to be heard, Schaller brings his own harshness to the new record on songs like “Fissures,” which you can hear premiering at the bottom of this post. It’s three minutes long and skin-peelingly heavy, moving from the noise rock of the first LP into thicker and more rolling territory. The uniting factor between the two releases is they’re both pissed off and heavy as hell, but “Fissures” demonstrates plainly some of the changes that have taken place in The Crotals‘ sound over the last three years.

And with a number of guest appearances aside from the full-time addition of Schaller, Horde seems to promise even more expansion than “Fissures” gives away up front. Fair enough. I’ll be interested to hear how the sax sounds on “Hello.”

In the meantime, hello:

Following the release of their debut full-length album “Fuel! Flames! Blast!”, Swiss sludge-metal group The Crotals recruited Randy Schaller from Voice Of Ruin as their new vocalist expanding into a quartet completed by Guy Borel on guitar and vocals, Maude Oswald on bass and Fabrice Marguerat on drums.

The four-piece immediately started working on a new full-length album titled “Horde” and the new material sees The Crotals going for a heavier route, combining the raw and corrosive riffing of Entombed, Motörhead and High On Fire with the groovy vibes of Kvelertak and Black Cobra.

Featuring guest performances from members of The Giant Robots, Sludge, Samael and Moonraisers, “Horde” is set for release on CD and LP on September 7th via Tenacity Music.

Tracklist:
1. Falling
2. Hello
3. La Horde
4. Melpomene
5. Fissures
6. Skogen
7. Overcrowded
8. Cradle
9. Lava
10. Dry Flood

Produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by Raphaël Bovey and The Crotals at MyRoom Studio.

Horde also features some great aficionados from Lausanne, Switzerland:
– Julia (The Giant Robots) tells some Swedish tales
– Makro (Samael/Sludge) burns some guitar tracks on Melpomene
– Denis (Moonraisers) adds Brass on a massive Hello
– Randy (Voice Of Ruin) joined the band and howls on Fissures.

The Crotals:
Maude Oswald (baryton)
Guy Borel (guitar & vocals)
Fabrice Marguerat (drums)
Randy Schaller (vocals)

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https://tenacity-music.bandcamp.com/album/horde
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The Crotals, “Fissures” official track premiere

Swiss trio The Crotals release their debut full-length, the energetically-titled Fuel! Flames! Blast!, on Friday through Tenacity Music. While maybe not as frenetic as the name they’ve given it might suggest, the 10-track record does boast a vital delivery in its push of aggressive sludge, the guitar of Guy Borel and baritone guitar of Maude Oswald crafting waves of nodding riffs punctuated by drummer Fabrice Marguerat‘s steady largesse of crash. Distinguished by Borel‘s throaty screams — more Tomas Lindberg than Mike Williams — the material across the album’s 39-minute span has a metallic underpinning to its noise rock that comes to the fore in songs like “Black Blizzard” or the ferocious but melodic opener “Lipstick on a Pig.”

That song starts with a sample — something about a snake — and later cut “Blast” seems to have one corresponding, but winding though Fuel! Flames! Blast! is, I’m not sure I’d say it’s working purely on a serpentine theme. Raging riffers like “Slave of Damnation” and the instrumental “Wrath” have some punk element, but there’s a post-metal vibe in the back-of-the-beat drumming on “Polar Thoughts” and the slower “Shelter,” which precedes, so The Crotals offer a touch more variety than it might at first seem given the largely unipolar vocals, consuming and satisfyingly layered as those screams are. “Never Sorry” makes for an early highlight, emblematic of some of the album’s more chaotic moments, but the one-two punch of “Blast” and “Mississippi” seems to get to the heart of what Fuel! Flames! Blast! is all about, its pummel and nod presented with a sense of poise. “Mississippi” builds patiently to a furious drum-led apex in its second half, but even there, The Crotals are in full control, and for something so aggressive and destructive sounding, it’s classy. They’re kicking your ass in style.

Same could be said of closer “Desert Odyssey,” which draws Fuel! Flames! Blast! to its finish not with sandy soundscaping, but with rounded-low end thrust and a final wash of noise, a popping snare cutting through melodic guitar that pushes into the finale, topped by one last raw-throated shout for good measure. The Crotals have a pretty tight grasp as it is on what they want their sound to do — i.e. fill your lungs — but there’s also potential in these tracks for longer-term creative progress, and even more than the name of the album, that’s how The Crotals make their exclamation.

Please enjoy the full stream of Fuel! Flames! Blast! below (there was an error with Soundcloud, so I’m using one of my own players), followed by some more bio background, courtesy of Tenacity Music:

[mp3player width=480 height=450 config=fmp_jw_widget_config.xml playlist=the-crotals-fuel-flames-blast.xml]

Featuring current and former members of Favez and Toboggan, Swiss sludge/stoner-rock trio The Crotals will release their debut full-length album entitled “Fuel! Flames! Blast!” on April 3 via Tenacity Music. Recorded at Rec Studio by Serge Morattel, “Fuel! Flames! Blast!” combines sludgy, stoner riffs with oppressive punk rhythms and serrated vocals distilling pure venom.

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