The Block
The Séance
Crucified Mortals has been around for 10 years now and this is their first album. Up until this point they have released a variety of EP’s and splits, but have yet to put out an album. Now that they have, they sure released a good one. Composed of eleven horror stories that they made into songs, Crucified Mortals has definitely shown a creepy, haunting, and even a kind of disturbing side to their music. But that, in its own way, makes the music more enjoyable.
Though for most of ‘Crucified Mortals’ it is thrash metal, there are parts of it that have death metal tendencies, and the album is at its best when the two genres mix. It combines to make a wonderful mix of speedy riffing and raw, harsh sounding melodies. The opening to “Sordid Treachery” showcases this with great opening lines accompanied with heavy, almost pounding drums. That’s basically what this album is; Riffs led by pounding drums that are accompanied with harsh thrash vocals. ‘Crucified Mortals’ is in no way different from most standard thrash acts, but their overall energy, and great soloing lend for a nice, if you can call dissonance and disturbing lyrics nice, sound.
One thing that seems to happen a lot on this album, though, is that a lot of the songs sound the same. This makes the album seem a lot longer than it really is, and detracts from the album. One thing is for certain though; headbangers everywhere will enjoy the sound that Crucified Mortals have put into this album. One thing attributing to that would definitely be the soloing. Zack Rose, who I believe does most of the soloing, does a great job on all of his solos, and lead singer Craig Horval, who also plays bass and guitar, puts down some fantastic bass lines to back him up.
The production is very clean and not at all like what I expected when I first received this album. Just glancing at the cover, which is really kind of cool, and some of the lyrics I assumed that the production would sound almost “underground”-like with fuzzy guitars and vocals that were way too low in the mix, but I was wrong. Everything is perfectly balanced, and it sounds great.
For people who have bee disappointed with more recent thrash releases this album is definitely for you. With harsh vocals, pounding drums, and killer solos Crucified Mortals has put forth a great effort with this album and definitely deserve 3.5 stars.