Crowbar
Time Heals Nothing


4.0
excellent

Review

by Robert Davis USER (306 Reviews)
December 24th, 2013 | 25 replies


Release Date: 1995 | Tracklist

Review Summary: Built on the success of Crowbar's self-titled album, Time heals nothing continues the band's onslaught of well-executed sludge metal.

Crowbar was a rather successful album for the band of the same name because it set such lofty musical standards for the sludge metal sub-genre that no other group could really tackle or raise the bar without doing something truly distinctive and making it work. That said, Crowbar's third album and the last before the band would go through a series of many line-up changes, Time heals nothing, is still as consistent and as impressive as any other Crowbar release. Of course, the band's self-titled second album may have left an inescapable and virtually unreachable standard of heavy music to follow, but Crowbar, as everyone who loves the band knows, always manage to pull it off.

There are two types of songs to Time heals nothing, which largely applies to Crowbar's other albums too. One type is shorter, faster-paced and an aural shock to the listener's ears, and the other is a slow-burning, depressively heavy affair of groovy, sludgy metal. The former takes its toll on songs such as the brilliant one-two punch of both opener “The only factor” and “No more can we crawl”, and the rhythm section here manages to stay remarkably heavy as well as reaching and exceeding the highest speed limits, something which after Time heals nothing, Crowbar would try and refine. The bass-heavy sections of both “Lack of tolerance” and its violent successor “Still I reach” also manage to kickstart the instrumental power into overdrive, making for an aggressive finish each and every time.

Longer songs such as the mournful and appropriately melancholic title track and “Through a wall of tears” seem to utilize Windstein's clean(er) vocal style, almost making him sound like a harmonic angel as opposed to a monstrous beast. Instrumentation flows beautifully with this hard-to-perfect vocal effect, and Nunenmacher's excellent drum rhythms make sure that nothing ever sounds out of place. Towards the end guitar work also seems to take on a more melodic approach, the physically battering albeit just as sorrowful heaviness of “A perpetual need” gives way to a tight and solid instrumental performance which, particularly due to the drum and bass rhythms working alongside each other, ends the song itself on a high.

The flaws that listeners will find here are exactly the same as on every Crowbar album: The lack of variety. Yet this can safely be ignored if all you need from a Crowbar album is a consistent set of heavy, aggressive/depressive songs filled to the brim with instrumental solidity and tightness. A couple of tracks here aren't quite as effective as every other, sure, but what Time heals nothing really succeeds at is its impressive form, and it's inevitable that if you like every other Crowbar record, you'll like this one equally.



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user ratings (172)
3.9
excellent


Comments:Add a Comment 
linguist2011
December 24th 2013


2656 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Merry Christmas everyone!

Digging: Devenial Verdict - Blessing of Despair

DominionMM1
December 24th 2013


21269 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

was waiting for you to review this

KILL
December 24th 2013


81580 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

hell yea, prefer obedience tho

linguist2011
December 24th 2013


2656 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

"was waiting for you to review this"



Well as a big fan of Crowbar I don't like seeing one of their albums on Sputnik without a review.



"hell yea, prefer obedience tho"



For me this and their self-titled are stronger albums than obedience, but not by that much.

KILL
December 24th 2013


81580 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

honestly s/t is prob my fav of theirs, but man odd fellows is so damn heavy

hikingmetalpunk
December 24th 2013


2208 Comments


fuckin' a, crowbar. top notch sludge

KILL
December 24th 2013


81580 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

bro they fit hard

KILL
December 24th 2013


81580 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

damn bro if you cant handle it i understand hey are kinda scary agreed

Pestiferouss
December 25th 2013


269 Comments


odd fellows m/

R6Rider
December 25th 2013


5282 Comments


heavier than a fat chick with a mouth full of pork rinds

PsychicChris
December 25th 2013


421 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Just got this album for Christmas. Haven't listened to it yet but I like what I've heard from them before.

random
November 10th 2016


3170 Comments


"That girl's ass was as fat as Kirk Windstein's..."

evilford
April 1st 2017


66849 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

damn this band just made solid sludge record after solid sludge record

InFlamesWeThrash666
April 12th 2017


10582 Comments


fuckin heavy

Digging: Mallevs - The Hammer

ChaoticVortex
August 20th 2017


1616 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Embracing Emptiness is one of the best Crowbar songs imo. Rest of the album is very good too.

Dewinged
Staff Reviewer
January 22nd 2020


32109 Comments


Kirk Windstein's solo album comes out this friday too. Should be dope.

y87arrow
May 31st 2020


715 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

The title song on this album is one of the saddest songs Crowbar has done, and that really means something! The lyrics always get to me even if I hadn't experienced them in my own life so far (luckily).

All 10 songs are great but my favourites are (other than the title song): Still I Reach, Through A Wall Of Tears, A Perpetual Need and the first two songs.

Digging: Hocico - Tiempos De Furia

naughtcturnal
July 22nd 2020


2734 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

anyone else cop the vinyl reissue?

Allergist
July 22nd 2020


1081 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

This album is goddamn heavy!

naughtcturnal
July 29th 2020


2734 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Hell yeah



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