Going to be honest. I know nothing about the phenomenon of drunken crocodiles. I mean, except to stay away from them. It seems like a crocodile exercising bad judgment isn’t something I want to encounter under any circumstances. I also know very little about DRUNKEN CROCODILES, the Heavy Psych trio out of Italy. Based on their latest album, Aegony, though, I wouldn’t mind encountering them especially if it was in their natural habitat—e.g., them on stage cranking out their unique strain of metal. 

Aegony is the fourth album, the second full-length, from Drunken Crocodiles. It was released under Argonauta Records on March 21, 2025. Formed in 2012, the band has had its fair share of lineup changes, pauses, and restarts. This trial-filled journey seems to have made its mark on the band, and it comes through in their music. In the bands words their latest album “delves into the existential turmoil caused by an unchecked ego, where self-centered desires overpower communal well-being. The album's narrative raises a critical question: ‘Doesn't the ego shape all actions, steering humanity away from harmony and deeper connections?’”

Yeah, so a little deep and evocative, this one. Lyrically, each track examines various flawed egos. The music rises and falls much like an emotional rollercoaster, sometimes angry, sometimes melancholic, sometimes both. Musically, the album is explorative, experimenting with various soundscapes mirroring the lyrical intent. Elia’s vocals are earthy and warm; Federico’s guitar work runs the gamut from warm to hot—but always with some heat; and Simones’ drumming keeps it all tight and running at pace.

Recorded analog, the album feels very immediate and genuine. You don’t get the death by overdubbing or the waxing over of all blemishes and scars. Granted this is not a new thing in metal, but you typically see it in Thrash and Black Metal.

You’ll find a mix of long and short songs on this eight-track album, including a 75 second intro and at least one track that breaks the 10-minute mark. All of them, however, seem as long as they need to be to say what they need to say. DRUNKEN CROCODILES are at their best when they get visceral. In this vein, my favorite tracks are “Le Divin Marquis” which has more ups and downs that one relationship—you know the one; “Rainmaker” which is as sludgy as a Louisiana swamp; and “Behavioral Sink,” the longest and most psychotic of the tracks, pulling us hither and yon before abandoning us its infectious despair.

Aegony isn’t for everyone . . . but isn’t that the way it is with all metal? Ironically, DRUNKEN CROCODILE is a thinking man’s sludge offering up narratives to ponder and questions to examine. And the more I think about the messages conveyed in Aegony, the more I begin to come to terms with band’s name. A cold-blooded killer just warming in the mud, maybe a little inebriated, but shit, where’s the harm in that? It’s a hard life in brackish wetlands.