That heady mix is exactly what’s on the menu with the debut full-length album Breaking the Catatonic State from Belgian trio Crouch. Featuring Wim Coppers on drums, Jasper Hollevoet on bass, and Levy Seynaeve handling guitars and vocals, this is a lineup forged from years spent sharpening their tools in bands that have helped push Belgium to the forefront of modern heavy music. You can feel that shared history across the record, feeding into a project that manages to be both confounding and deeply gratifying all at once.
Choosing to intro with an American voiceover talking up the subversive, non-conformist stance of what’s to follow feels like a throwback to a bygone era, but opener ‘Godby’ smashes out the gate with all the ferocity of a Botch record and the whole thing just works. In a remarkable departure from their self-titled EP, Crouch have reemerged as a monstrous beast formed of parts smashed together and run through a labyrinth of contemporary rage. That sense of rupture feels very deliberate. The band have drifted away from the pummelling comfort of familiar, looping sludge rhythms that formed the backbone of their previous release, in favour of something more jagged and unstable, with structures that twitch and pivot rather than settling on one mode or feeling.
The record runs the gamut of influences from the aforementioned Botch in its angular dynamics, to the oppressive beauty of early Isis, to the virtuoso fretwork and sheer groove of Mastodon. There’s a clear philosophy underpinning it too, one that leans into asymmetry and friction, breaking away from the kind of steady, slowed-heart-rate rhythms that are such a mainstay of the genre. The result is a record full of sharp corners and sudden turns, where hooks pull you deeper into the disorientation rather than smoothing the edges. There are plenty of moments that call to mind the jittery, hyperactivity of early Dillinger Escape Plan as much as anything, and those chops and stabs blend perfectly with the heft of the low end.
Unsurprisingly given the calibre of the musicians involved, there’s a flair to the playing on Breaking the Catatonic State that effortlessly circumvents any sense of repetitiveness or over-familiarity. This kind of confidence can only come from years of sweat-drenched practice and single-minded persistence. Likewise, the production, handled within the band’s own creative circle before being given a final, muscular finish by Brad Boatright, is raw and purposeful, and allows the three musicians to fully realise their collective vision.
There’s a lump-hammer directness in the vocal approach, with Seynaeve flexing his considerable range but stripping things back lyrically; abandoning abstraction in favour of unguarded intent, and even a touch of dark humour, like this gem from ‘Vidal’: “It’s borderline insanity / Half mad, my eyes wide. / A feast / For the added value seeker / Sounds better in Dutch / But you get my point”.
On closer ‘Lhotse’, the album goes out with bludgeoning force, which further drives home the point that this is a show-stopper of a debut album. It lands as a final surge of intent, an emphatic statement from a band that have fully committed to shedding their old skin. Breaking the Catatonic State captures a moment of total creative alignment, where sharp instincts, hard-won experience, and absolutely ferocious delivery have combined to produce an early contender for one of the albums of the year.