Review: “Spazzmatic” by Crown Vic

Conceived in 2017 in Parksberg West Virginia, Crown Vic have been treading the running boards between Death, Sludge, Doom, Beatdown, Hardcore, Black and Noise all wrapped up in a caustic swirling battery acid like punishing hopelessness, getting a shade darker with each release. Gage Wolfort (Bass), Taylor Davis (Guitars), Kai Sikio (Guitars, Vocals) and Lane Hughes (Drums, Vocals) recorded their next chapter at Daily Grind Studios in Columbus Ohio with Josh Nunn…

There has been a single and a demo since 2019’s “Black Lips” and each of those has show a clear  sonic progression to where the band find themselves now with “Spazzmatic“. An eerie, warped spoken word sets an evil tome with “Your Dead Welcome You” before a Vein esq bridge into a filthy, down tuned piece of neurotic Hardcore that lurches violently before dropping into a downtempo passage. An instant pit starter that drops the match on a pool of kerosene, it moves into “Stir Crazy” like it’s a perfect partner with a continuation of the same dynamic. Low, slow and caustically abrasive, the tempo changes are as perfectly executed as the violent mood swings of someone suffering from a Bipolar disorder. The atmosphere is dense and oppressive thanks to the tar pit like Sludgey bass tones while the 90’s vibes in parts of the title track are a surprise twist of the knife as the plot thickens. Switching their attack with a stabbingly vicious blend of Blackened Hardcore for “Visions of Birth” that sounds like early Raging Speedhorn playing Beatdown, the band create a backdrop that you really want to hit the mosh pit and throw your friends around to while at the same time lesser mortals will cower at the sheer menacing horror of it all. Having a sample of th classic Johnny Cash song “Ring of Fire” at the end of “Drug Induced Psychosis” gives that eerie sense that a Snuff film has, making you question what is and what isn’t real in the lyrics and the line between the two cigarette paper thin. It’s a brutal cut that sees Devin Swank of Sanguisugabogg, Dyskinesia and Limbsplitter fame lend his throat shredding vocals to proceedings while also being one of the most straightforward of the burnt offerings here, returning to that core sound the band have with a warped edge and blunt force trauma aggression. Bathing in blood, the eerie haunting soundscape that is  “fissuresinthefloor” feels like the soundscape to a stay in an asylum but with “Moloch” they save the best til last. A battering percussive groove with gloomy fierce guitars raises the beastly vocals from the black depths with a terrifying sense of morbidity in a tale of horrific hallucinations created by the semi-conscious mind of a depraved being. “Spazzmatic” feels like Crown Vic are moving into “Axe To Fall” era Converge or Full Of Hell territory as they develop their sound [7.5/10]

Track listing

1. Your Dead Welcome You
2. Stir Crazy
3. Spazzmatic
4. Visions of Birth (exhausted)
5. Drug Induced Psychosis (ft. Devin Swank of Sanguisugabogg, Dyskinesia and Limbsplitter)
6. fissuresinthefloor (ft. Roy F. Bush)
7. Moloch

“Spazzmatic” by Crown Vic is out now and available over at bandcamp.