The latest album from the long-running Swiss band Cwill, who have been around since the early 90's, playing a crushing brand of melodic crustcore that stands out for the prominent use of violin as the lead instrument. There have been a bunch of crusty hardcore bands to utilize strings in their music to add a more melancholy air to their raging D-beat driven thrash, but Cwill were doing it long before anyone else, and even though I'm a big fan of other bands who have followed in their footsteps (Embers, Ictus, Remains Of The Day, Of Efrafa, Garmonbozia, etc.), these cats are still rulers of this sound.

It's been years since that last time I heard anything new from Cwill, but I found out recently that they had released a new album last year on the German anarcho-punk label Skuld, which I was finally able to track down. Trotz Allem is a powerful slab of grimly triumphant crustcore, complete with that haunting violin that acts more like a lead guitar, constantly weaving weepy, folky melodies over the rampaging metallic crust, like Tragedy if they were combined with dark apocalyptic folk strings, or maybe From Ashes Rise mixed with the countrified strings of a David Newman film score. Cwill keeps these nine songs from turning into a monotonous thrash-fest by frequently slowing things down or breaking into passages where it's just the drums and violin racing along together at tops speed, but this is largely heavy, ferocious stuff, with lots of raging fast thrash, brutal vocals that get pretty close to full-on death metal growling, and best of all, stunning dual guitar harmonies that intersect with the violins and deliver hooks that are as catchy and epic and anthemic as anything you'll hear on a Tragedy record. Plus, the production on Trotz Allem is pretty huge, definitely much bigger and fuller than most crustcore albums, with everything coming through clearly, including the violin parts. I can't recommend this enough to fans of brutal, super-melodic crust/thrash who dig some strings with their aggression. Seems that this album is only available on vinyl as a more expensive import, though we'll be keeping our eyes open for more of their stuff from here on out. Comes in a matte jacket with insert that includes English translations of their surprisingly poetic lyrics, too.