Anxious Arms - Crimes of Despair (2022)

“Crimes of Despair” is the first LP from Sacramento metal/post-hardcore band, Anxious Arms. Over 5 years of being a band, releasing singles and EPs and touring, Anxious Arms has continuously honed in on what their sound is today. Beginning in the early days as an emo band and progressively introducing new sounds from metal and hardcore, the band organically evolved sonically.

Crimes of Despair does a great job displaying this. You can still hear bits of early Anxious Arms throughout the record, but sonically, there are many more layers and dynamics happening. This is quickly introduced on ‘Intro’, where a soundscape of Black Sabbath & Sleep-inspired guitars take over the song with lingering vocals, then loops into the title track—which explodes with heavy bass and shouting from vocalist, Kyle Bolla. Later tracks like ‘Foundation’ do a great job of switching the tempo at perfect points within the record–creating a more driving and urgent feeling.

Lyrically, Bolla is at his best. Emotions of loneliness, anger and doubt are poetically described in a doom-like world. There is an underlying through line of despair that tends to linger throughout the whole record. This theme, paired with the slow and heavy doom metal to post-hardcore dynamic works great. Anxious Arms are able to craft a concise and consistent LP, where a range of influences from Crowbar to Deftones and Cave In makes perfect sense.