Cruxifiction, The Coming
De Tenebrarum Principio
Apr 4, 2011
User Rating: [ratings]
Track Listing
- Haunting Hypocrisy
- The Coming
- The New Messiah
- Death Is The Only Way
- The Silent Traitor
- Burn On A Cross
- I’ll Bless You
Blasphemous and ant-Christian in every way possible the music on France’s Cruxifiction’s debut slab of hatred and vehemence, The Coming, builds upon traditional black metal acts like Deathspell Omega with galloping thrash elements and the bludgeoning brutality of death metal. The end result of this unholy amalgamation is seven tracks of vile, blood spewing contempt for all things Holy.
“Haunting Hypocrisy” gets right down to business with galloping, thrashy riffs and pummeling drums before the vicious vokills come into play with a higher end, raspy delivery. There are a couple of layers of vocals going on throughout this track that give the song some impressive depth. Discordant, yet injecting a touch of melancholic melody into the mix, the guitars carry the weight of the subject matter with ease while the rhythm section embraces their inner death metal fiend with bruising blasts and thunder. Man, that’s a hell of a song to open up with.
The fun continues with the title track, though with a more thematic and atmospheric vibe. Traditional black metal trappings are the foundation as these guys incorporate spoken (or rather, vehemently spit) vocals, increased disjointed melodies and plenty of shifts in the tempo to keep things unholy and entertaining. “The New Messiah” (there’s an interesting lead about half way through that’s some what juxtaposed to the base music, but it works well) and “Death is the Only Way” (nice dual vocal approach to set this track apart) carry the blackened themes perfectly but inject a bit more of a death metal influence into the mix seamlessly. If the combination of these two songs don’t make you want to burn a priest and/or nail him to an inverted cross, then I’m not entirely sure what will — it took my wife almost an hour to convince me to extinguish the torch I had lit for my own crusade.
A trilogy of anti-everything songs wrap up one hell of a debut. “The Silent Traitor” starts off with melodic and memorable guitar work before unleashing hellish screams. The song is a bit more airy and open when compared to the first half of the album, but believe me, that makes it no less evil or full of spite. The quiet, atmospheric beginning (with whispered vocals nonetheless) not withstanding, “Burn on a Cross” is anything but a gentle lullaby to sing your kid to sleep. There are some huge, blasting moments throughout this song that really ramp up the aggression levels. Finally, we have “I’ll Bless You,” a song that not only wraps up the album nicely, but is one of the quicker hitting songs on the disc complete with machine gun drumming and melodic riffs. This is one hell of a song to end on.
I had initially passed by The Coming after my first listen. I found the band’s moniker a little cheesy and only half-heartedly listened to the album while working one afternoon. I’m glad I didn’t just blow it off and, instead, came back to it for a second and a third and ultimately several more listens before realizing how much damn good (vile and evil, that is) it really is. Cruxifiction may not be pushing the black metal boundaries with their debut, but you can’t help but get wrapped into their shroud of darkness, anti-Christian stance and solid musicianship.