CRUD

Crud Lumbers "Alone In Vain"

Hailing from Miami, American doom quartet Crud return with a follow-up to their 2016 release with a new single, “Alone in Vain,” to be featured on an upcoming split with Totem Cat labelmates Black Tomb. Stylistically, the track is a refinement of the style Crud debuted with 2016’s Resin, and the band sound even more comfortable than before combining their lurching, ominous doom passages with groovy 1970s inspired guitar breaks and solos. Regarding this part of their music, the band commented that their song-writing is “…typically unpremeditated, we’re usually just jamming, going through warm ups during practice and either Julie (Bassist) or Kris (Guitarist) will come up with a riff that we all like and start building on it collectively from there. Our big thing is that it needs to have a certain energy to it — if it doesn’t make us feel a certain way then we scrap it.”

Florida is certainly associated with metal, thanks to death metal progenitors like Morbid Angel, Deicide, and Death. Regarding the metal scene in Miami, Crud comments that it is “still quite small but powerful.” There are challenges that come with playing in a state that is less known for its doom scene than others, particularly in one as large as Florida; for Crud, touring has to be made the most of. Simply playing interstate means having to “…make an eight hour trek just to get out of this state, so we need to prepare to make an impact once we get out of our mosquito ridden swamp. Bands like Holly Hunt, Shroud Eater, Torche and Cavity — just to name a few Miami-based bands — have been doing this for years and really opened up the whole ‘Heavy’ scene down here. Miami is finally starting to get some attention because of bands like them and that’s really rad to see.”

Despite logistical difficulties, it’s easy to imagine Crud’s music going down well in a live setting, and “Alone in Vain” is a great example of why; abyssal growls and wretched shrieks both ride above the sludgy guitars and drums which combine typical doom grooves with ferocious fills. For the band, playing live offers a “…different experience when we play live; you feel the bass rigs shaking everything around you, our singer Andy, is a maniac and really gets in the crowd, the guitar and drums just punches you in the ears. It’s definitely cathartic for us.” Crud have regularly booked shows outside of Florida and are booked for Days of Darkness in Baltimore, MD, later this year.

-Emily Mei Marty

“Alone in Vain” will be appearing on Crud’s new split with Totem Cat labelmates Black Tomb.

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