REVIEW Crawl Below -- singing the melodic doom of melancholy and low spirits

Crawl Below

9 Mile Square

12 February 2021

Crawl Below (Connecticut, USA) is the do-it-yourself homemade solo project of Charlie Sad Eyes (When The Deadbolt Breaks, Sentinel Hill, Holding On To Nothing, and Banth). Mr. Eyes does the vocals, guitar and drum programming. This is six songs (35:23) of sad, emotional, melodic doom with gothic or gloom romanticist male vocals. It is recommended that listeners begin here with this album, and not with the previous two albums (both in 2019) nor the covers EP (2021), and not because the other recordings are bad, but because Mr. Eyes is a genre grasshopper that cannot stay within the walls of any particular style. We heard the other recordings and they can go towards black metal, folk, punk, hardcore, hipster metal, and other things. However, this particular recording right here is melodic doom, and is much more pleasant, accessible, consistent and easier to understand than, say, some of the extreme metal of the 2019 debut album. This new album has a super chill style that will relax you, make you sad and then make you kind of happy to be sad, and you might to try sing along, which is doable because the singing is approachable and mellow, and melodic. Don’t fool yourself, though, this singing is very nice on the ears, which might not be the case when you try to replicate it, friend.

9 Mile Square by Crawl Below