Crossworm Makes Stylistic Departure on 7th LP but 10th Solo Effort Overall “ANTI” (Album Review)

Crossworm is a 42 year old recording artist & producer from Grand Rapids, Michigan starting as 1/2 of 2Korpse before branching out on his own for the full-length solo debut Phoenix. This was followed up by a sophomore LP Ready to Burn alongside 2 EPs Mouth Full of Dirt & jaws: Deciduous respectively. Crossworm took a few years off after the latter only to return in the summer of 2014 by dropping 4 more albums: Parasite Avenue, Drowning in Restricting Thought, Finding X & Eat the Weak. But coming off his 3rd EP Gōst this past spring, that was all building up to the 7th LP in the Dirtcore Music founder’s discography & the 10th solo effort overall if you include all 3 EPs that I previously mentioned.

After the “Play” intro, the first song “Finally Alive Again” opens the album by setting the tone for it singing over synthesizers that he took a lesson from the brave whereas “Everything Changed” delves further into synth-pop territory singing that he needs his significant other here with him. “It’s Unheard Of” gives me a bit of an industrial vibe continuing to sing that he doesn’t know how it all came to him just before the quasi-funky “Candy” talks about trying to find something sweeter.

“Your Misery” points out that there’s no one out here in the street other than you & him over another synth-pop beat leading into “Get Out of Here” featuring Bodies Below Sea Level talking about finding themselves in these long waters they’re treading accompanied by an electro-pop instrumental. “Slovenly” makes it clear people tried to turn him at the stake again & he barely made it out alive with some rock undertones musically, but then “Burn” featuring Oblivia bringing back the funk a little covering The Cure joint of the same name.

The penultimate track “Protogeist” shoots for a spacier approach to the beat admitting that he’s on the fence of someone he used to be & someone that he’s actually never been in the past prior to “Feel” featuring Good Spells rounding out the LP on a cloudier note talking about feeling this woman whenever he breathes & knowing from when he sees it that them being a couple wasn’t meant to be.

This dude has always displayed his versatility over these past couple decades & for ANTI, he makes a stylistic departure from the horrorcore sound that he came up on in favor of drawing inspiration from synthpop music. His singing is reminiscent to that of the late LINKIN PARK frontman Chester Bennington & the production he cooks up is more reminiscent to that of Depeche Mode.

Score: 8/10