Surprises sometimes come from out of the blue. CRUZ from Barcelona, Spain is one of the bigger surprises of that kind. I started to listen to their album “Culto Abismal” without any great expectations, somehow prepared for either some Doom stuff or Black Metal. But the first riff already got me. Within seconds, the mix of Death Metal with distinct (Neo-)Crustcore influences convinced me with merciless power and unleashed aggression, paired with rudimentary harmonies. Taking into concern that CRUZ is around only for three years now and “Culto Abismal” is their first album after a demo last year, this album is a real blast of a debut. And it’s not just a fire that soon extinguishes after the first song, the malevolent ‘Mundos Disformes’. No, the album keeps a high level over the whole eight songs. The D-Beat massacres ‘A Cops De Destral’ and ‘Intruso’, the sinister title track ‘Culto Abismal’ with finest leads or the up beat spiced creeper ‘La Caza’ – all hits, no miss! While ‘La Pitjor De Les Plagues’ and ‘Pesanta’ again cultivate the balanced high class mix of Death Metal and Crust, the final ‘Tumbas Ciclópeas’ is heavily flirtin’ with the old school of Swedish Death Metal. This one features a decent nod to the masters ENTOMBED, so CRUZ did anything right here. Once again, I should say, since "Culto Abismal" is a very good example for doing anything right. And I’ll say it again: this is the first album of CRUZ, therefore the tight and furiously rude compositions are astonishing. There should be no reason not to check this album out at www.facebook.com/cruzmetalpunk or www.selfmadegod.com