A violent, bestial Black-Death band from Washington, USA, Crurifragium come all guns blazing with raw, filthy, feral fury. The album starts off with Behold (Evangelion), with its mixture of demonic chants, some static noise, and a sustained synth that sounds reminiscent of something from an 80’s horror film. All of this prepares you well for the cacophonous chaos that is about to be unleashed. The second track, Stigmata Excruciation, starts off the aural Holocaust, delivering pummelling, blasting drums, vicious riffs, and sickening vocals. Whilst the songs on the album are generally over three minutes in length and feature a good degree of tempo change which allows for some crushing, rotten mid-paced riffs to choke you in their putrescent miasma, there are a few shorter, lightning fast attacks that are barely around a minute in length, such as the flesh-ripping savagery of Flayed Angels, all of which heightens the savagery. Throughout the relentless attack, there comes across a genuine sense of demonic evil. The stench of ancient catacombs and putrefying corpses intermingled with the heavy aroma of incense, with robbed cultists summoning forth some unfathomable abomination or all out demonic warfare are the sort of mental images brought forth whilst listening to this album. This is the best attempt I can muster to describe the type of feeling that permeates the music, since it isn’t just impotent rage, but rather it does possess a genuine malevolence like all worthy bestial Black Metal should. The influences from Blasphemy and Archgoat shine through on this album, and whilst there are these occasional sections that sound perhaps too similar to those who had come before, it ultimately is delivered in a way in which one can see that this is an honest band devoted to the Gods of Black Metal. This is no mere tribute group, but a band with an intense, inhuman power behind them. Indeed, as the album comes to its close, you become consumed by the unhinged The Horns of Power, with guitars squealing, bells tolling, and the final explosion that ends with the triumph of the insatiable, unholy rampaging beasts of Satan. This may sound like the deranged frenzy of snarling fiends, and it certainly is. This is a killer album that improves with each listen.
8/10.
SADISTIC SCREAMS 