CRUCIFIER
Stronger Than Passing Time
(Death To Mankind Records)
49:40min

Finally… finally it is there, the debut album of a vicious Death / Black band from the US, which is known for more than a decade within the underground scene and released promising demos, EPs and only recently put out "The Ninth Year" a collection of their previous material on Elegy Records, which made a lot of people once again lusting for a real album by Pennsylvanian CRUCIFIER. After this rather long introduction I guess most of you would like to know, if the long time of waiting is finally rewarded and hell yeah – it is!!! Since I am a fan of CRUCIFIER’s old material too, I try my best to be objective and will not use any superlatives here, but "Stronger Than Passing Time" is just great! The band has undoubtedly its own way of blending Death and Black Metal elements, but with musicians hailing from such excellent acts as GOREAPHOBIA, GRAND BELIAL’S KEY and DECIEVERION, one should not expect nothing but quality. CRUCIFIER sound very old school, have some cool traditional Heavy / Thrash Metal riffs here and there, straight Death Metal parts are mixed with morbid Black Metal-like sounding stuff, wicked, dark hooks and extremely sick vocals that remind me of GRAND BELIAL’S KEY, but with a stronger emphasis on growls than on screams. Highlights on "Stronger Than Passing Time" are the mighty Doom song ‘Spirits’, which starts off as an eerie, perverted slow beast and then culminates in an excellent Metal riff, ‘Demons Of Filth’, a brutal Death Metal attack and ‘Fire And Brimstone’, which has the most memorable hooks on the album and a furious break I just love. The production is transparent and powerful too and the CD is due to a nice cover, a really thick well done booklet with a lot of photos of Cazz "Ex-Afro" Grant (haha!) and his evil comrades also optically a true masterpiece. Get it or be crucified! For additional info visit the label’s website www.deathtomankind.com.

Stefan Franke

Stefan Franke

Related reviews / interviews:
CRUCIFIER - The Ninth Year (Stefan Franke)

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