Finally available here in the US! The French duo Crown came out of nowhere in the past year, dropping a five-song Cd that blew the brainpans out of just about everyone that heard 'em. Following in the elephantine footprints of early Godflesh, the two members designed their sound around a mechanized, drum-machine powered lineup, and carved out blocks of monstrous sludge metal that draws influence from the usual suspects (Isis, Neurosis, Godflesh, Killing Joke) but on debut full length Psychurgy somehow shapes this sound into something that manages to sound unique and new. Out of all of the new bands that have taken on the mantle of industrial metal in recent years, Crown is certainly one of the most formidable.

Beginning with the slow intrusion of backwards moans set against a background of murky rumbling and surges of orchestral dread, Psychurgy establishes an atmosphere of seething dread, a feeling that crystallizes when the machine-like thud and sheets of shimmering dark guitar melody coalesce on "Abyss". The guitars are massively heavy, walls of rumbling down-tuned crush that are layered across the drum machine, which mostly appears as a steady, trance-inducing pulse that rarely strays from it's slow pneumatic swing performed at maximum power. At first the song slowly ratchets up the intensity and heaviness through the controlled staccato rhythms and droning riffs, save for some brief eruptions of blazing blastbeat. It turns majestic in the blink of an eye, suddenly erupting into a killer melodic riff, a huge hook draped in ethereal sonic sadness.

And from there Crown lock into an ultra-heavy industrial sludge groove that's just ridiculously heavy, taking the chrome-plated Sabbathoid riffage that Godflesh pioneered and cranking up the single-minded monotonous intensity a notch or two. But there are many moments of celestial beauty that appear as well, the band layering their sudden descents into these more spacious, subdued passages with the sound of distant Hammond organ-like tones and sleek, shimmering electronics. When the vocals emerge as a deep, almost chant-like intonation, they remind me a little of Al Cisneros (Om), but they also appear as deep soulful singing and harsher, more monstrous utterances. And man, those riffs...the guys in Crown are gifted songwriters, already displaying an affinity for highly dramatic, sweeping arrangements and melodies, and their mesmerizing, emotionally wrought industrial metal achieves a skilled balance between gargantuan heaviness and awesome beauty. One of the best debut albums of the year.