Crowhurst

United States · formed 2011 · last active 2020

Crowhurst is Philadelphia composer Jay Gambit's revolving-door noise/black metal project, begun in 2011 as solo power electronics before expanding into a shifting ensemble spanning black and doom metal, drone, and dark ambient. Their 2019 album III was produced by Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou at God City Studios and released via Prophecy Productions; its 'Ghost Tropic' video paired Ballou-produced black-metal-noise with a Jane Chardiet-directed horror clip. The forthcoming Thorns (Sleeping Giant Glossolalia, 2026) folds in ten collaborators including White Ward's Dima Dudko on saxophone and Sleepwalker's PBV on dulcimer, balalaika and bouzouki.

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SCORE PROFILE

JazzyBalkanHardcoreSurfBarbershopDeathBlackTechnicalGlitchTheatricalFolkDoomDroneShoegazeAmbient8-bit
Jazzy4
Balkan0
Hardcore0
Surf0
Barbershop0
Death0
Black6
Technical4
Glitch6
Theatrical6
Folk3
Doom4
Drone6
Shoegaze0
Ambient5
8-bit0

Accent numbers counted towards the index. Hover an axis — or hold it on a phone — for what it means.

WHY THOSE SCORES

  • Jazzy 4Forthcoming Thorns is described as running through 'dark jazz, ambient, psychedelia, drone and extreme metal,' with White Ward's Dima Dudko contributing saxophone (Decibel Magazine interview).
  • Black 6Widely tagged a 'Black-Metal Noise Act' across coverage; Spotify bio notes the project has 'touched on numerous genres such as black and doom metal.'
  • Technical 4Thorns features a 10-piece ensemble (harp, cello, violin, vibraphone, piano, synth, drums) arranged around Gambit's core electronics.
  • Glitch 6Founded as a power-electronics/harsh-noise 'sound manipulation, electronics' project (Bandcamp bio, Decibel interview).
  • Theatrical 6Thorns is a full concept album ('The City of Thorns,' Neuromancer-inspired) with commissioned illustrations and an accompanying browser-based video game (Decibel Magazine interview).
  • Folk 3Collaborator PBV (Sleepwalker) contributes dulcimer, balalaika and bouzouki to Thorns.
  • Doom 4Spotify artist bio explicitly cites 'black and doom metal' among the project's genres.
  • Drone 6Bandcamp catalog spans 'droneworks' to ambient to black metal; drone is named directly in the Thorns genre description.
  • Ambient 5Tidal/Spotify genre tagging lists Dark Ambient among Crowhurst's core genres; Thorns description names ambient explicitly.

MEMBERS

  • Jay Gambitsamples, sound manipulation, electronics (founder)
  • PBVguitars, dulcimer, balalaika, bouzouki, vocals, field recording (Thorns collaborator, also of Sleepwalker)· also in 夢遊病者 (Sleepwalker)

CONNECTIONS

collaboration
producer · 2
artwork
  • Deafheavenpath →

    Reuben Sawyer provided artwork for both Deafheaven's Roads To Judah (2011, "Cover, Artwork [Insert Art]") and Crowhurst's II (2016, "Artwork"). Freelance artist with no atlas band membership -- pairwise per the artwork exception to the hub-and-spoke rule. source ↗

label · 4

FURTHER LISTENING

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