Deviated Instinct / Summon the Crows

A good split best features two bands who are complimentary in style yet individuated enough to stand on their own. This split from crust legends Deviated Instinct and upstarts Summon The Crows does just that. And while I got this split solely for the excellent Deviated Instinct track, I was pleasantly surprised by the raw potential found in Summon The Crows.

When Deviated Instinct reunited, they released an EP, Liberty Crawls To The Sanctuary Of Slaves, but they held a track back. That track, "End Times," actually outpaces the EP selection in quality, harnessing Deviated Instinct's corrosive agglutination of crust punk, sludge, and death metal into a tight four-and-a-half minute slow crawl of righteous chugging riffs, head-nodding drums, and dual harsh-n-deep vocals, D.I. recapitulate their mid-80's innovations here while making continued progress. Any D.I. fan should dig this track.

Summon The Crows surprised me. Labeled 'blackened d-beat,' they sound more like mid-80's Brazilian thrash to me. Think early Sepultura/Sarcófago but with crustier vocals. "The Burning," in particular is just brazenly thrash, with little to no d-beat/crust influence. "Children Of The Light" has some interesting off-time drum work in the chorus but otherwise chugs along somewhat blandly. The slower sludgy-ness towards the end puts them closest to the D.I. influence and might explain why they were asked to share this split.

With tighter songwriting, fresher riffs, and a little more nuance vocally, Summon The Crows could get onto something. I'll definitely be checking out their full-lengths. Speaking of which, Deviated Instinct should totally capitalize on this track, and their EP, and get a full-length out.

"End Times": 86%
"The Burning / Children Of The Light": 68%
Total: 77%