I like my death metal to have the
stench of decay and corrosion. To feel like it is something big and inevitable.
To have riffs that pulsate the inner vibrations of the darkness and a voice
that commands the spirits that lurk into the shadows. Cruciamentum have all that.
It has swirling riffs that grasp
the listener and throws him/her into their world. “Charnel Passages” is
attractive in its ugliness and emotional in its desolated nature. It is a
deserted landscape of a long gone civilization, that has succumbed into its own
ego and is now lost in time. Never to be revived but to be viewed as a warning.
We all have the same fate.
Their song crafting is
exceptional. Though it’s the guitars that lead their horrific amalgam of chaos
(I like being dramatic) everything is working cooperatively, giving each song a
sense of being. Of individuality.
While the drums create repetitive
patterns, building the structure for every song, and other times just
assaulting the listener, the guitars have a viscous sound, creating some sort
of inhuman existence. Aesthetically, it is very pleasing to the ear, if one has
affection for this kind of music. If that someone doesn’t, then this will
probably frighten his clean and innocent soul. It is dark, chaotic, yet with discipline
and passion burning underneath it.
For example, the song “Tongues of Nightshade” is a masterpiece
of death metal craftsmanship. Everything is placed, I suppose subconsciously,
in its perfect place and time. But then “Rites
to the Abduction of Essence” is not a lesser song. It maintains the same
sense of something gargantuan that is slowly sucking us into its bowels.
The lyrics work very well too.
They make the music transform into something visual. If we see them as the
narration of the music, then when the vocalist spits out: “Beyond the shrine of
madness, there lies revelation…” and immediately follows a swirling riff, which
is also the core riff of the song, there is nothing else to do, other than have
a deviant smile and nod your head in approval.
The flaws can be spotted in the
production. The vocals could be a bit higher in the mix, just a bit. Sometimes
they feel enclosed within the guitars, not being able to be fully expressed.
The guitars could also have more body and volume. On the other hand, the whole album,
along with the ambience, works great into creating the necessary atmosphere.
The layering and the circular
evolution of each song is great. The orchestration, with the classic death
metal leads that turn into solos and how they disappear behind the walls of the
riffs, the dry voice and the repetitive, and at time ritualistic drum patterns
make “Charnel
Passages” one of the best death metal albums of the year.
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