Cruciamentum / Vasaelth - Eroding Chaos Unto Ascendant Flesh

CRUCIAMENTUM / VASAELETH - Eroding Chaos Unto Ascendant Flesh (HELLS HEADBANGERS - Split 7" 2011)

This excellent split 7” titled “Eroding Chaos Unto Ascendant Flesh“ was on my wantlist for many years (all in all, it was originally released back in 2011!). But I never had a chance to grab a copy... until few weeks ago, when I finally managed to get one and more so, I did it for a reasonable price. Like I sometimes say, it’s “better late than never”, I am just happy to finally have it. Especially because this is just a stellar piece of death metal and both bands did awesome job here. 

Cruciamentum goes first and let me just say that – along with Grave Miasma and Lvcifyre – they are my favourite UK band for some time now. It's a shame that Cruciamentum are so slow and don’t record music so often - all in all, it’s been nearly eight years since the release of “Charnel Passages”. But maybe it’s the quality that matters, not the quantity. And quality is here, of corpse, with a crushing metal of death, which slays with its intensity, savagery and viciousness of riffage and vocals. Cruciamentum obviously has a bit in common with such legends as Morbid Angel, Incantation, Immolation and some younger acts like Funebrarum or Ignivomous, but I dare to say that they just stand on their own field of death metal morbidity with even more demonic and ghastly sound. “Rites to the Abduction of Essence” really has a great atmosphere, this song is very diverse and brilliantly composed, it just has everything I love about death metal. Damn, there are even some parts which include keyboards, what makes the sound even more interesting and darker. Brilliant song. 

Side B brings a monolith called Vasaeleth, who – to be honest – is a band that I am familiar because of the name rather than the music. Well, from their whole discography I only have two 7” splits in my collection (one with Vorum and this one here) and I don’t remember if I’ve ever listened to their album or MLP. Anyways, “Profane Ceremonial Exudation” from this split is a solid dose of harsh and bestial death metal. The production is slightly raw, the music is a bit more chaotic and ferocious when compared to Cruciamentum and generally, it is very intense and savage stuff. This song definitely reeks of old school, blasphemous death metal, I can easily put it aside with such bands as Dead Congregation, Ignivomous or Hatespawn and they would all be equal. It's a shame that Vasaeleth split up few years ago, but I am defintiely going to search for their album now. 

Verdict: 80/100

Garota - Czarne wizje

GAROTA - Czarne wizje (GODZ OV WAR - CD 2022)

I may not be the biggest fan of what’s been coming from the Polish black metal for the last few years or so, but everywhere there are some exceptions. And even though Garota didn’t destroy my world, I can say that their debut album ”Czarne wizje” is pretty fuckin good. From the first run through, this album caught my attention, I was quite impressed that a new band was able to deliver such a good material. Not a bad start, really. 

“Czarne wizje” offers eight ferocious slabs of black metal, infected with a small hit of thrash. Garota doesn’t waste time on unnecessary intros, they don’t even bother to have fancy solos, melodies or whatever. Their music is a bit simplistic in that aspect, but not primitive at all. And it’s just straight forward, aggressive black metal. Tempo wise, it is mostly mid paced in that old school black / thrash way, with quite a lot of blasts spread throughout the album, so there’s a whole fuckin lot of energy coming from these sounds. Surprisingly, it’s not so obvious, with which bands you could compare Garota music, I think that they managed to avoid some strict comparisons, even if the music is well buried within the black and thrash tomb (well, maybe Sodom then?!). But for example, vocals do remind me Abusiveness, where Mścisław always had this very unique and characteristic style of vocals and arrangements. Garota’s Asbiel sounds pretty similar to my ears (which I’m not complaining about!) and I think these vocals also add a bit more originality to Garota’s music. 

Despite its aggressiveness and absolute viciousness, I find the music as quite easily listenable for black metal, which is perhaps due to the very good, clean production of the album. These sounds clicked immediately and proved to be surprisingly catchy and memorable. Maybe that’s a reason why I had enough of Garota after few spins and just had to take that damn CD out of the CD player. When I came back to “Czarne wizje” a few days later, everything still sounded great, so my overall feedback for this album is definitely positive. It may not be the most groundbreaking and insane album of the year, but it’s a solid and worthy material, which deserves recommendation. Godz ov War describes it as “eight ominous, nihilistic and wrathful tracks” - there’s no reason whatsoever you should not believe them. 

Verdict: 80/200

Hexenaltar - Bestial Damnation

HEXENALTAR - Bestial Damnation (GODZ OV WAR - CD 2022)

Another new band, which Godz ov War took under their darkened wings, is Warsaw based Hexenaltar. Here is "Bestial Damnation", one of two EPs, which this project has unleashed in 2022. Well, there are three proper songs on that CD only, so I don't have much material to base my opinion on. But I can definitely say that Hexenaltar plays solid and worthy thrash metal, with a bit of black metal feel thrown to it. It sounds quite alike to such Bloodthirst or Bestiality, in my opinion, and it definitely gives a nice kick in balls. I always like how ferocious and aggressive can such thrash metal sound like (in opposition to wimpy thrash metal like Anthrax or other shit), it appeals to me with the fast tempo that dominates in these songs and harsh, yet energetic production of this recording. It is straight forward and uncompromising music, no fuckin around with melodies or other shit, just vicious and violent thrash from start to finish played on the top speed. It’s exactly as I like it. These three songs go fast, so I am eager to hear more... but man, Hexenaltar really did cause a strong neckache after confrontation with their music. 

Let me just add that few live songs have been thrown to this CD as a bonus. But I would rather focus on the studio material. These live songs are OK, but Hexenaltar shows their full potential in the three studio songs. So, let’s keep an eye open on this band, there may be something great coming from them in the future. And I hope that they will continue also Abominated, which is another killer band, as I see that some members of Hexenaltar are also involved in Abominated. Get back to work then, fuckers. 

Verdict: 80/100