Crawlers – Loud Without Noise Review

Mixtape is, sadly, just a fancy word for EP. Crawlers know that. Their audience knows that. As fun as it is to use the word mixtape, a compilation of favourite tracks cannot be filled with the work of one artist. Mandatory mixtape inclusions find at least one Red Hot Chilli Peppers track somewhere buried within. For Crawlers though, a free pass can be given. They are a promising group and come together with a desire for prestige in their broad and frightening genre. Loud Without Noise is another tease of what the band can do together ahead of their upcoming, as-yet-announced album. It is on the horizon, of course it is. There is no way it cannot be. Loud Without Noise is a warm-up.

EP-opener I Can’t Drive is relatively tame. Surprising considering just two tracks later the harsh and brilliantly thrashy work of Feminist Radical Hypocritical Delusion strikes through with great presence. Quiet and fixated on the vocal strength of vocalist Holly Minto, first track I Can’t Drive is as solid an introduction as can be expected for a mixtape. Rightly so, though. There is great clarity and presence from Minto’s work here that adapts an always engaged and intense focus for the band. Loud Without Noise may be off to a tame beginning, but it is that tame introduction that coaxes creativity from the band.

There is still that punk mentality that guided Crawlers’ first EP to great heights throughout Loud Without Noise, but there is further musical clarity. Slowly and assuredly, the band are carving out a focus and sound that suits them. Fuck Me (I Didn’t Know How To Say) is a defining example of that. Reserved rage can be felt by this one, there is a need for Crawlers’ work here to explode into itself but it never does. Much of that comes from experimentation with the mixing style and which instruments are given prominence where. Feminist Radical Hypocritical Delusional does well to work through those moments. Ultimately, mixtape, EP, whatever Loud Without Noise is, it works, and it works well. Minto and company are in fine form as they charge through with the inevitable next steps of their career.

EP-closer Hang Me Like Jesus has an intimacy and darker tone that feels to be as unique and far away from the self-titled EP that dropped just last year. There is a semblance of Sloppy Jane appearing in the core of this piece, longevity and style that will hopefully steer great creative moments for the four-piece. Crawlers are assuredly cementing themselves as a unique and special piece of the alternative rock movement. It is not alternative enough to alienate those yet to dip their toes into the genre, not sparse enough to remove the tag entirely. Engaged, varied and ultimately refreshing in its ingenuity, Crawlers’ Loud Without Noise is an EP worth settling into. Not just because it passes the time before the album, but because of what it builds, the expectation it sets and the talent it displays the whole way through.