A few years and a few lineup changes later, the ever persistent Crematorium's back with a new full-length that offers up a much more focused attack of their brand of sundry extreme metal, cranking out 10 tracks in a mere 32 minutes for a concise and in your face assault that leans in a little more of an aggressive direction this time out. Their general style is still a blend of various death metal and metallic hardcore styles (much more the former than the latter), but as I had hoped they're implementing more solos into the writing here, and the balance of midpaced mosh and thrashy speeds is fluidly executed without a hitch throughout. Similarly, the vocals shift gears from low growls and staccato shouting to a wide range of raspy sneers, yells, and hardcore-ish vocal patterns throughout the disc without sounding forced or chaotic. "Bloodwake" opens up right away with a set of ripping death metal riffs and a forcefully groovy chorus that should likely incite mayhem in the pit when the band plays live, "Drowning as One" kicks in with some zippy speeds and also uses tasteful hints of groove to keep things catchy and memorable, and just check out the slick melodic solo in "Infinitesimal Acculturation"! I don't really care for some of the excess and out of place tremolo picking in "Perils of the Disillusioned", but the midpaced break midway through is really memorable, backing the lead breaks as well as the spoken vocals very nicely, and I'm of course totally behind the sludgy dissonance that comes in later on as well. But "Born of the Deadtide" later makes much stronger use of tremolo picking and efficiently transitions to some thicker midpaced breaks that possess more of a classic 90's metalcore sort of chugga edge that I'm all for (And what's up with those fucked up vocals!? I can't tell if that one run's reversed or manipulated or what!?). "Dying Under a Binary Star" is one of my favorite tracks, opening with a strong midpaced churn and some emphatic melodies before quickly shifting into a lightly Swedish flavored alternate picking run. The chorus is really powerful here, striking a nice sense of balance between subtle melody and sheer heaviness that certainly bodes well for the band's songwriting refinements. Meanwhile "Turn a Blind Eye" is a pretty solid mix of classic thrash and contemporary metalcore in its use of dense picking patterns and power chords as well as borderline "catchy" chord slides and structures, though the unexpected clean outro does feel somewhat out of place in the way that it kind of pops in out of nowhere and dissipates without much time to develop. The recording's pretty damn good, similar to their last outing, but much like the songwriting a touch more focused and controlled. At times the vocals feel slightly out in front, and elements of the percussion can sound overly rigid due to triggering or whatever, but I'm loving the guitar tone, and the clarity of the vocals helps the shifts in vocal delivery and texture really show through. My main suggestions would be to give the bass a little more presence in the mix (it's basically impossible to hear), warm up the drums so they sound more natural (i.e. less distracting), and try to ensure that the vocal volume doesn't inch up too far up front in relation to the music. The guitar tone is crisp as fuck though, highlighting precise and energetic performances that definitely make this record a little more ferocious than "For All Our Sins". The layout looks quite nice (though I'm not sure how I feel about the odd correlation of posing musclemen within the generally bleak and consistent landscapes on the cover) and uses crisp, clean text arrangements and color schemes throughout. Lyrically the album title should of course indicate that there's a certain apocalyptic thread throughout the content, but as opposed to the general approach to such topics most of these songs are a little less direct, and seem to revolve more around the concepts of ignorance, greed, and complacency as the downfall of humanity: "Decades of erosion shaping foundations of culture, while fueling movements of a regression from anything resembling humankind, As if we don't need this life, as if we need these lies..." Not bad at all. Overall this record doesn't demonstrate quite enough of a step forward to bump the band up to the next level, but they're getting there. I truly believe that there's a degree of quality to this band's material that deserves more attention, and they've really come a long way over the years, so I hope they'll finally start to get their due here once this record hits the streets. There are a couple of minor lapses on this album, but nothing that even remotely hinders the no nonsense punch of the bulk of the songwriting. I'm still hoping they'll fully blow me out of the water at some point, and that's definitely a realistic possibility.
[Prosthetic]
Running time - 32:09, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Bloodwake, Drowning as One, Dying Under a Binary Star, Born of the Deadtide]
Crematorium - http://www.crematoriummusic.com
