Album review

Trap Them - Crown Feral

I discovered Trap Them only recently when I was scrolling though Facebook. A friend with similar music taste to myself shared a song of theirs from YouTube. I thought I'd give it a go, listened to the song they posted... totally blown away.

The track was 'Hellionaires' and the biggest compliment for this album is, the song which blew me away isn't even the best song on the album.

Trap Them is an especially brutal Grindcore band from Seattle, the best way to describe them is think The Red Cord playing Black Flag songs using Entombed instruments in a really really fucking bad mood. Now you're getting somewhere close.

Crown Feral is their fifth album, and the third for Prosthetic Records, who are becoming pretty special themselves at recognising talent and supporting it to reach glorious heights.

And feral is exactly what comes to mind after approximately 5 seconds when the first Ryan McKenney guttural scream reaches down your throat and punches you in the stomach. Trap Them have many strong points, but McKenney's vocals are just about top of them. Like Grady Avenell in Will Haven, the vocals hear really push up the intensity to a level almost uncomfortable to listen to. It's a magnificent performance throughout the album.

The rest of the band really have performed on the album too, the riffs are unstoppable, the drumming ferocious and the bass unrestrained.

The album kicks off with 'Kindred Dirt', a slow, brooding, cacophony of sound, before firing into the aforementioned 'Hellionaires', a magnificent 100 mph punch to the face which gets adrenaline running though every inch of the body. Firing more and more impressive riffs at you as the song goes on, before 'Prodigala' takes over and continues the explosion of riffs at lightning speed.

The violence doesn't let up, 'Luster Pendulums' pummels the listening into submission, 'Malengines Here, Where They Should Be' has the groove which Lamb of God left behind on 'Sacrament'. 'Speak Nigh' has more great riffs than most bands manage in a career.

'Twitching in the Auras' slows the pace right down, and is a frightening experience as you know that this is the calm before a murderous storm, and that's what it proves to be as they launch into the stand out song on the album, and maybe of 2016 in 'Revival Spines', three minutes of pure aggression and hostility to make even the most metal of listeners looking over their shoulder. This song is everything you could ever want in a metal song.
The album finishes off with a classic 2 minute Grind track in 'Stray of the Tongue' and a maelstrom of ideas and creativity in 'Phantom Air', before finishing off, putting on its coat and walking out the door just 31 minutes after walking in.

The whole thing is held together by a taintless production job by Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou, a man who knows exactly how to pull together all the sounds in this environment and allow them to breath in their own space for the listener to enjoy. Pure clarity, but consistently nasty sounding, there can't be many men in the world who could have done a better job producing this.

Trap Them have created a grindcore masterpiece, and a contender for album of the year in every end of year review. The undisputed kings of grind.

9/10

Top Tracks - Revival Spines, Hellionaires