I think what I like most about this latest track from Destroy The Planet is the way that they merge various strands and sub-genres of the heavy rock family into their own signature sound. Rock has always been a musical realm given over to arguments about sub-genres and sub-cultures and heated debates as to where a certain song might fit in the post-this and that-core world.
Well, let me tell you, Crawl fits in almost everywhere you chose to put it. Some will like the staccato, on/off classic rock riffs. Others will admire the band’s ability to move with the times bordering more alt-rock territory as they do. Those with gothic tendencies will have fun in the bruised and brooding darkness that they draw up around themselves and those given over to more indie-rock sensibilities will enjoy the immediacy and accessibility of it all.
Rock music may have found its final form many years ago, it doesn’t need to evolve too much, change the rules of the game or toy with cross-genre fusions. But that doesn’t mean that those who call it home can’t play with the sonic ingredients. And this is the perfect example of just how you do that. The individual sounds are more than familiar but the way that the band re-arranges those sound elements into their own pleasing designs is what makes things work. It’s a bit like the fact that although builders and architects get to work with the same basic building block, the end results can still be unique and breathtaking.
Crawl is both fresh and familiar and that is the art of making rock music today. It needs to have enough of a connection with what has gone before to pull in those denizens of the well-established musical comfort zones, the ones who already know what they like. Yet it also has to offer something new. Crawl does both and does both perfectly.
