The Armchair Captains are a five-piece prog-funk band from Liverpool in the UK and The Crushening is their latest single released on 10/03/2023.

The prog element of this track is evident to hear right from the start as the song has many time and pace changes throughout its three minutes and nineteen seconds length, and the music is intricate and experimental.

The guitars are heavy and have a distortion to them that gives the track a grungey feel which really takes the listener on a trip back to the 90’s grunge scene. The drumming is energetic, with lots of crashing cymbals and the basslines give the track a certain funkiness to it.

Musically I can hear influences from a wide variety of bands from Rage Against The Machine, to Dream Theater and this shows the diversity of the band, which will make them appeal to a wider range of listeners. The track has a rawness to it at certain points, but in other parts it is more polished, creating stark contrasts throughout the song.

The vocals on this track are awesome, changing from clean singing to rock rapping and everything in between and this is done with ease and ability. The vocals are strong and control the track from start to finish are not overshadowed by the music accompanying them.

This is a great track and from a band I hope to hear a lot more of in the very near future.

This review is the property of The Metal Asylum