Crowbar "Zero and Below" LP

Crowbar songs are unapologetic emotional outpourings, with a bare-knuckle resolve alongside its soul-searching vulnerability, reliably delivered with crushing heaviness. Zero and Below, which cements the band’s dense catalog as exactly one dozen studio albums deep, is the most unforgivably doomy Crowbar record since their landmark 1998 effort, Odd Fellows Rest. Zero and Below is reverently old-school, counterbalanced by a resonant melodicism that’s stunningly mature. Songs like “Chemical Gods,” “Bleeding from Every Hole,” and “It’s Always Worth the Gain” demonstrate what Crowbar does better than any other band: powerful, evocative, and crushingly heavy music.