Ominous Crucifix / Entrails

OMINOUS CRUCIFIX / ENTRAILS - Split LP (Dark Recollections - LP 2013)

I must confess that I purchased this 12” split LP mainly because it is a new release of the Swedish death combo called Entrails, which is such a cool band. And I just collect now everything they release… I don’t know if I would ever get interested in any Ominous Crucifix recordings, if they haven’t shared this LP with the Swedes. But it is cool to get to know this Mexican band, now I know that… and it turned out to both bands from this split did good job. I am especially happy for Ominous Crucifix… I mean, OK, I have heard their name before, it popped up several times here and there, but I never had a chance to hear some music from those Mexicans. It turned out that they play very solid death metal.

It is old school, it is dark and morbid, it is also quite memorable – so it has everything I like most in this style. Their part of this split contains three brand new tracks  - all under the tile “Inert Deities of Deceit”. I must admit that while I didn’t have any expectations from this Mexican troop of death I liked their music instantly. Man, this is just truly awesome and killer piece of old school death metal. They remind me Throneum a little, with the difference that maybe Ominous Crucifix seems to be less chaotic and not as furious… but anyway, these three songs, which they have putted on the split are great. I like the riffs a lot, I also like how the band creates the obscure and evil atmosphere; and more so, these sounds are just filled with passion, energy and aggression, which is something necessary, if death metal was going to really catch my attention. Even if Ominous Crucifix doesn’t play anything ultra fast and relentless, you will still get blow away by the power of their music. I also must mention that to me their music seems to be a little epic, with some of these monumental riffs, which sometimes have even been accompanied by keyboards in the background to deepen the dark atmosphere and eerie feeling. I cannot even pick up my favourite song from the three; each has something great to offer and something memorable. All in all Ominous Crucifix has made a huge impact on me and they’re yet another band, which I must put on my shopping list; their “The Spell of Damnation” debut full length on vinyl is now one of my most wanted items. I strongly recommend this band to the fans of Morgoth, Throneum, Pentacle, Asphyx / Soulburn and The Chasm.

Meanwhile Entrails from Sweden occupies side B of this 12”. This band is well known to me already; I have their first two albums on vinyl and now I also am looking forward to get the third death metal opus, which Metal Blade is about to release in couple of weeks. I must say that the change of the label for such a mainstream one is something quite worrying for me. Fuck, none of those big labels have been giving a damn shit about this style of music for well over a decade and now they all seem to like it – or the money, which go with these new old school bands – again. But that’s something what I will moan about once I hear “Raging Death”. Now let’s see what Entrails have prepared for this split with the Mexicans. Well, I was hoping to hear some new songs from this band; meanwhile we have here a couple of old demo songs, which have been re-mixed for this release. Luckily none of them have been re-recorded on the two full length albums, which I have heard, so for me they’re like completely new songs anyway. And they both really blow my head off. I don’t know why they haven’t been used on the LPs, maybe because such “Depression” is so doomy and slow and they thought they wouldn’t fit on the album – which I think they would anyway. By the way, I must mention here that I think the label mixed up the titles of the songs. Jimmy said in the interview I did with him last year that “Depression” is a doomy song, so it would be the first track of the two; besides, the second one has a chorus, where they scream “human decay!!!!!!!!”… So, if we take than I am right then “Depression” (not “Human Decay”) is truly awesome; the opening melody is kind of those, which sound like they have been taken from some old horror movies; it is truly eerie and has great sinister feeling. And as I said already “Depression” is just slow and obscure, doomy track, but it works just excellent in my opinion. Who knows if it isn’t actually one of my favourite Entrails songs so far… It is colossal, massive motherfucker, with great doomy riffs and creepy harmonies – it’s the best description for “Depression”. Then comes “Human Decay” and well, this song doesn’t make as huge impression on me as “Depression” does. It is almost standard Swedish melodic death metal… I don’t wanna say that it is not good or something, it just doesn’t crush me so much and all in all I think it is one of the weaker tracks from Entrails… luckily, it also is quite short, so I quickly play “Depression” once more…

So yeah, definitely a killer release from Dark Recollections Productions. My only complains would be for the change of the song titles on Entrails side… and also the quality of packaging is not the best, if I can be honest. Anyway, I strongly recommend you getting this piece of black wax.

Final rate: 90/100