To say Crowpath have evolved over the years would be an understatement. Originally content with an ultra-technical form of grind with some hardcore edges, Crowpath have steadily moved into the technical death/grind arena, merging their hyper-percussive, complex, “I’m going to fuck your mother while sodomizing you with a shotgun” playing style with the dingy, depressive, melancholy sounds of sludge metal. Son of Sulphur and their split with Submerge saw the band implementing some of the most sickening sludge this side of Eyehategod and Goatsblood and then delving into a technical chaos that would cause even Ron Jarzombek’s head to explode. And the funniest thing? They pulled it off seamlessly (well, on the Son of Sulphur full length. The split with Submerge was just pure sludge).

And One with Filth continues this descent into dirty, unrelenting, unforgiving despair. One with Filth is an utter cacophony of chaos, loathing, odium, and plain suicidal depression. When the music is complex, it’s as sharp as a chainsaw being forcefully inserted into the rectum of a horror film victim, shredding internal organs and making mince-meat of lesser mortals. “Fuck me gently with a chainsaw,” indeed. And when it gets bleak and sludgey, it’s as heavy and as lonely as the gravitational pull of a black hole: dense, weighty, and inescapable. By the time you’re done with One with Filth, you’re going to have your sphincter hemorrhaging blood like a god damn biblical flood, and a shotgun cocked in your mouth, ready to end your miserable, pitiful existence. Jesus, I haven’t felt this obliterated since Rune‘s The End of Nothing.

Teufel has already repeatedly mentioned how good the grind acts this past year have been, and Crowpath adds another must-buy of 2008 to that list. If you don’t own One with Filth, your life is more worthless than a Jonestown devotee.

Review byNecro-tron