A View From The Back Of The Room: Crowbar (Live Review By Tony Gaskin)

Crowbar, Voidlurker & Tumanduumband, The Asylum Birmingham, 02.04.23

We’re back at The Asylum in Brum tonight for an evening of sludge and doom courtesy of some New Orleans legends, with support from two popular doom bands, both from the West Midlands, another gig showing the depth and quality of the local metal scene.

First up were the ritualistic doom duo, Tumanduumband (8). The set is scene with drummer Luke Duum, anointing and blessing the acolytes in the front row with an inverted cross painted on their foreheads. Luke and his co-conspirator Scott Cooper on guitar, look like they’ve stepped straight out of a Hammer horror film, the track Black Ritual Of The 25th Moon would make a great movie! The mood is further enhanced by the copious amounts of dry ice with red and green lighting giving the eerie look to the performance. The theatrics perfectly set the mood for a pummeling set of doom. The drums are heavy and deep whilst the guitar distortion screams out like a banshee. It’s a fully instrumental set but the pace, cadence and volume are forever changing so it doesn't become monotonous at all, a suitably horrific opener for the evening.

The doom is strong tonight and second band on Voidlurker (8) have been making waves on the circuit for a few years now. The trio pick the pace up a bit and we get the first mosh pits of the night as frontman Brad Thomas belts out tracks from their highly acclaimed EP Industrial Nightmare. The vocals are intense, with Thomas giving his all, whilst the rhythm section of Rennie on bass and Bishop on drums echo that intensity. The frenzy reaches it’s pinnacle with the crowd favourite, Jeffrey Doomer. Ending the set with Bitchcraft and Misery the band have firmly announced their place on the UK Doom scene and you’re going to see a lot of these guys up and down the country.

I last saw Crowbar (9) in 2014 when they headlined the Black Country Metal Fest III at the Slade Rooms in Wolverhampton and the only thing that has changed is Kirk’s beard is longer and greyer! Not Much has happened with the band since then, just two more studio albums, 2016’s The Serpent Only Lies and last years release Zero And Below

Tonight see’s a celebration of 30 years of Crowbar, a band that pioneered that southern sludge sound alongside their contemporaries Eyehategod and the first two tracks tonight are lifted from their 1993 self titled album, High Rate Extinction and Self Inflicted. Kirk’s style and sound is unique and it looks effortless as he casually knocks out riff after riff as we jump 30 years to tracks from Zero And Below, the tone on his guitar is sublime and his gruff vocals are a perfect fit for the sludginess. Windstein is the sole remaining original member but the current line up handle those early tracks with ease and the set continues to switch back and forth between the old and new.

It’s a sold out crowd here tonight showing that this band is as popular now as it’s ever been and the crowd are loving it, head banging and moshing all night long - “We are so glad to be back and can’t thank you all enough,” shout out Windstein at one point. After a short pause at the end, they play one final song No Quarter a cover of a Led Zeppelin song that appeared on the Crowbar album, a fitting end to a brilliant evening.