Crawl

Emerging in the early 1990s from relative obscurity, the influential American post-industrial heavy metal band Crawl appeared alongside contemporaries including Fear Factory and Soulstorm, fusing industrial music’s dynamic metallic rhythms with death metal’s overwhelming power.

Operating from Green Bay, Wisconsin, the musicians first formed in the late ’80s as Nothing Sacred, with vocalist and bassist Tom Danz, guitarists Tim Pantzlaff and Jason DeJardin, and drummer Ron Heemstra completing the roster. After issuing two demo recordings and cultivating a loyal regional audience, the group adopted the name Bleed. Heemstra exited soon afterward, clearing space for both a Roland R-70 drum machine and bassist Bill Kabacinski. Their first studio recording appeared in 1993 on Bleed’s debut EP, Womb.

Two years later the ensemble again changed its name to Crawl and delivered its initial full-length album, Earth, through Olympia Records. Danz departed the next year, leaving guitarist DeJardin to handle vocal duties. Additional lineup shifts preceded the subsequent release, among them Keith Powers replacing Kabacinski on bass and Josh Hovland taking over bass duties from Kabacinski. The resulting album, Construct, Destroy, Rebuild, surfaced in 1996 and proved to be the band’s final studio effort. In 2019, Bleed’s debut EP Womb was reissued via Megadeth bassist David Ellefson’s Combat Records imprint.