CRUCIAMENTUM - "CONVOCATION OF CRAWLING CHAOS" (Ancient Death Metal from out of the U.K. from 2009)

CRUCIAMENTUM - "CONVOCATION OF CRAWLING CHAOS"
("D.I.Y."; Demo):

After Hardcore and Emo/Punk next up this month is Death Metal. Yes, so it goes, fuck all 'musical borders' anyway, haha;-). This demo I received via mail from a friend quite a while (which means some years) ago and somehow I totally not-thought about it anyway for a pretty long while already now until I read an entry at the great "COSMIC HEARSE" (http://cosmichearse.blogspot.com/) blog this very day. I thought like, damn it, I know this band and demo but from where and since then... ah, and I know them from here (which means exactly from this demo), but don't ask me since when, I just know that it is already quite a while ago now since back then. Seeing and reading the mentioned entry in the Hearse I decided to listen to my copy finally again... and then I also decided to do a review of it by my own. Okay, and now striaght into the review: In the rotten and bloody and brutal world of Death Metal two major directions of current developments (some would maybe say 'trends') are for some few years now already to be recognized now a days pretty clearly. One development is today named Brutal Death and this one is a incredible hard and extreme, technical and demanding offspring child out of (modern) Death Core (by itself a very hot trend not so long ago, but also a very short lived trend with a lot of its forefathers like JOB FOR A COWBOY, THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER and maybe also ALL SHALL PERISH are now-a-days to be seen in the first row of the Brutal Death wave) and raging technically very skilled U.S. (and especially Florida) Death Metal (what especially MORBID ANGEL became known for over the last decade or so), and also extreme Death Grind bands like EXHUMED and LIVIDITY became important for the Brutal Death scene and are now-a-days by themselves counted as Brutal Death bands. The other development is a return to the bloody, rotten and sinister diabolical roots of the genre called Death Metal and so we could maybe talk about a new wave of Old School Death Metal today, maybe somehow primitive compared with the Brutal Death stuff, but not worse and also in another form and way not less brutal than it. U.K.'s CRUCIAMENTUM and their here reviewed demo album from 2009 are definitely to be located somewhere in or as a part of the new wave of Old School Death Metal. After a atmospheric dark and sinister intro, "INTROMANTICAL SCREAM", we get three songs, "DEATHLESS ASCENSION", "CONVOCATION OF CRAWLING CHAOS" and "ROTTEN FLESH CRUCIFIX". Three heavy and massive Old School Death Metal inferno assault tracks, packed up full with deep and brutal guttural death grunt vocals, all done with some sick reverberation to it, totally harsh bulldozer guitar riffing, damn sinister leads and melodies and sick and twisted solo parts, and a tight to the point played heavy artillery rhythm section. Thumbs totally up for that! What's great is the songwriting of this guys, from (again) tight to the point played blast speed attacks (and this really extreme, aggressive and fast) over mosh parts to brutal mid paced parts and from there to totally down paced and sick and psychotic, sinister and dark, evil and twisted doom parts you can find everything in this three songs and all is melted nearly perfectly together, here and there some very few Old School Black Metal parts come also into play, here and there all is cultivated with some few nice discordance elements and parts, and with all they do CRUCIAMENTUM really create a great and intense atmosphere, and that's nothing but damn good. Ah, and that these guys know how to play their instruments should be clear for everyone here at this point. If you like your Death Metal the Old School way and to be located somewhere bewteen (old and early) MORBID ANGEL, (also old and early) BOLT THROWER, (early) SINISTER and also some AUTOPSY (even CRUCIAMENTUM aren't that sick but instead of this more diabolical in music, style, lyrics and aesthetics) and some very few OBITUARY (talking especially about the "SLOWLY WE ROT" era), and if you're also not shying away from old CELTIC FROST and very early BATHORY and maybe also some few BLASPHEMY, HELLHAMMER and POSSESSED, and if you can and like to imagine these mixture pretty self-contained and Old School but NOT retro in any way possible, yehp, then I think these U.K. Death Metal warhounds are exactly what you need to be made happy by, through and with the music(k) you use and like to listen to. Maybe nothing groundbreaking and also surely nothing overly new or fresh or what the hell else ever, but some damn good stuff that everyone who knows about how great Old School Death Metal was and is (at least still can be) really need(s). and if you're such a guy then make sure you know this band, hm, and why not starting with this demo?!? Right, why not, so go and search for it and get it! (And if you simply just can't find it anywhere no matter where you look for it and no matter how hard you look for it, then maybe check the Hearse out at http://cosmichearse.blogspot.com/2011/08/convocation.html and get it at least via downloading it from there, because I also don't know if there are still physical copies of this album here are floating somewhere around.) Lyrically we get what ya expect to get, I mean, it's Old School Death Metal and just look at the above mentioned names or titles of the songs, yehp, so we get diabolical and necro, dark and sinister lyrics. The production sound is truly a great one, it totally gives strong back up to the sick necro atmosphere of the musical material and it also totally supports the pure Death Metal style and spirit. And, at last, the artwork is also what you may expect, but (or: and) it really looks all pretty cool. CRUCIAMENTUM now-a-days have a record deal going on with the greece label of the name of "NUCLEAR WINTER RECORDS" (don't ask me anything... totally unknown to me... but cool label name... even it's maybe some sort of a clichè name, hehe;-)...) and a new proper CD release of CRUCIAMENTUM is announced to be released still this very year of 2011. Until(l) then get this one here from where ever and enjoy it. This is a serious try to give old or ancient Death Metal finally a new life and this so that it can and will also stand its ground today in a world pretty much dominated by Brutal Death and still (more or less) Death Core, and it's not just a serious try, no, this is also a succesful try, period. If you like your Death Metal still just pure Death Metal the way a lot of guys would say that it once was meant to be then you will surely love this stuff here. Better get it, will be worth your time and effort. (8 of 10 points)

(http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cruciamentum/285239791946 - PS: But I really hope that the band wasn't anyhow influenced by this ridiculous and silly 1990's T.V. series of the name of "BUFFY - THE VAMPIRE SLAYER" when they've chosen their name... because then this would still be a somehow succesful try, but not a serious try but instead of this an ironical try- at least if ya ask me-... that can't be taken anyhow serious that much after all...)