Review Summary: "I don't think I'll fit into your dream of perfect order and everything still. I won't fit in I'll bring my chaos along. Taking you further. Teaching you havoc. Taunting the birds. To bring you the message."
Members: Gab (vocals), Antoxin (guitars), Dzzza (bass), Ivan (drums)
.Crrust is a very unknown metalcore/post-hardcore/mathcore band reigning from Moscow. They have one prior full-length called You Came For Everest… You’ll Find Your Way Dead which featured a more post-hardcore focused sound much in the vein of Thursday’s Full Collapse. Pain Is A Mere Sensation is the band’s 2nd and final album, the band broke up soon after it’s release. The sound they create on Pain Is A Mere Sensation ranges from Glassjaw to The Bled to The Dillinger Escape plan all while making a sound that is all their own. The vocals done by Gab are definitely one of the highlights of the band because of the versatility of his vocals and the huge amount of passion he pours out with them. His range and tone are great as well, his vocals most remind me of Daryl from Glassjaw and James Munoz of The Bled but by no means do I find them to be a rip-off of either. This 45 minute single flowing piece of music is what I consider to be a perfect exercise of tension and release. Bursting right out the gates with just a lone guitar strumming before the band enters at full force shoving towering abrasive guitar leads and pull offs and technical jazz influenced drums in your face. The first half of the album is lead by the vocals and lyrics of Gab while he streams the instruments alongside his stream-of-consciousness style of writing which comes off onto the style of the music. The tension just grows and grows with each riff and mood change going from screamed chaotic verses to quietly sung bridges before coming back to the ensuing chaos. Not a single riff is half-assed, it’s balls to the wall the entire time.
About the time around the 1st verse something very ugly starts to rear it’s head out of the music; the realization that pain can never stop and can only get worse. Whether it’s the desperate guitar lines or spilling out in the lines “I don't think I'll fit into your dream of perfect order and everything still. I won't fit in I'll bring my chaos along. Taking you further. Teaching you havoc. Taunting the birds, to bring you the message.” After the verse a chaotic repeating mathcore guitar lead begins to wrap it’s self like noose around your neck. With each new guitar riff things only get darker and more menacing especially in the lyrics “Life's too exhausting and that makes you untouchable. Death's so insignificant and that makes me too tired to play the game. Blood's so wasteful and flesh is too repulsive so…what else is there to enjoy, but getting rid of it all. There's no space for compassion”.
Soon after you’ve been running around in circles trying to untie yourself a moment of peace arises as a friendly clean guitar riff and a simple drum line skip along before a moment of melancholy arises and Gab lightly begins to sing “See for yourself, I'm on your side. Seal yourself off, I will not die.” Once again the door slams shut and the pain starts again and desperation ensues like trying to escape out of a dark room but the door is locked and there is no way out. Once again a chaotic mathcore guitar line is wrapping its noose tight around your neck and Gab’s abrasive screams resonate in your eardrums saying, “Nobody gets lower. Nobody shuts up. Strangely though someone's for hire, when others are left to get by.” A towering guitar lead follows growing taller and taller with the lines “I fell right in again. I'm stuck in here for long” just before things break back down into another bridge once again giving you a false sense of security. Jangle-y guitar lines float by as Gab hauntingly sings, “You've come home only to find that your boundaries have eaten your soul. You now stand for all the hate you love and everything you're bargained for.” The pace begins to pick up and the guitars get distorted again and the mood becomes very melancholic in both the music and vocals. The pace here is constant ebb and flow, a constant build of tension and release in the music, the noose gets tighter. Then everything breaks down as the drums beat everything to a grinding hault as Gab anxiously shouts “Caught inside the fins. Relying on weather to rip out your studs”. As things build back up the screaming is more abrasive than ever all while the instruments remain lightly refrained in intensity. The music grows more and more unpredictable and chaotic, diving deep down below the soil, a new low. Depravity and absolute desperation continues in a way that reminds of the darkest moments on a Tom Waits record. Battered back down again, tension reaches another all time high through very intense guttural screams until simple guitar lines spill out like blood as your body falls limp to the floor lying in a pool of red. Things carry on very slowly; just a few simple guitar lines and drum beats like the last few drops of blood. By this point you’re only slightly conscious, no more thoughts drain out, you feel nothing, all tension is released. Blue veins spilled out into the open air where the blood turns red.
The desperate thoughts come back as you lay there silently in half dead despair, as jazzy guitar leads and a simple drum rhythm builds the music back up this time more chaotic than ever, fusing mathcore and free jazz into one. Things stop, more tension filled screams “This sky is the roof of our shed decorated with vapor trails and ornamented with moving stars, the roof of our portable home.” Guitar leads swing from side to side like a tangled giant franticly trying not to fall over. Things only make less sense than ever, nothing is concrete, no answers. The guitars, the drums, the vocals, the bass die out as lonely feedback rings out like the last moments of life. Wide-open space with the momentary final heartbeats simulated with a heavy muted chug and huge thuds on the kick drum, snare, and toms with a few cymbal hits in between. This continues for some time, it’s a slow, painful death. A few desperate screams off in the distance; the heavy thuds pick up pace. The drums carry on in a sloppy waltz as jangle-y dissonant guitar lines ring out in the background alongside more desperate screaming. The guitars fade in and out along side a few final drumbeats; electronics enter from far off in the distance, dissonant and abrasive electronic shimmers in a skittering broken ring. At this point only the mind is still alive; living out it’s final few moments in peace. Things continue as the electronics grow louder with other strange noise effects in between, creating a dim but haunting melancholic melody. Then the march of an electronic drumbeat begins in a slow clockwork like dirge towards the end as a Nine Inch Nail-esque synthesized bass line follows alongside as Pain Is A Mere Sensation comes to a close. The electronics fade out, as your body lay cold and lifeless.
Pain Is A Mere Sensation is a great and original album; the first 30 minutes are absolutely enthralling. It is an awesome take on a fusion of such styles and is pulled off very well. The vocals are a huge highlight to the album as well. The only downfall is that it can be kind of boring for many people after the instruments stop and it is mostly just scattered out drum rhythms and noise before the electronic finale, but all in all it’s a part of what I believe .Crrust were going for with Pain Is A Mere Sensation. They certainly succeed at creating an album with such a bleak atmosphere and gaining more and more tension with each passing second before everything falls apart into complete darkness.
