Band: Crucified Mortals
Title: Crucified Mortals
Label: Hells Headbangers Records
Distribution: Hells Headbangers Records
Release date: March 15th 2011
Review: CD

Crucified Mortals were formed ten years ago in Cleveland, Ohio (USA) as a solo-project of Craig ‘Reaper’ Horval (ex-Nunslaughter, The Spawn Of Satan). In mean time, he’s got joined by his former Nunslaughter-colleague Zack Rose (also in Nekrofilth – look out for the review on the upcoming album Worship Destruction, also on Hells Headbangers Records) (guitars) and drummer Sebastian Dzialuk. Throughout the years, Crucified Mortals released different demos and splits (two on HHR as well), some EP’s and a mini-album (Converted By Decapitation, Stigmatized Records, 2004), and after a decade of existence, the debut studio full length finally is a fact.
The result is a self-called thirty seven-minutes sonic attack. And it’s a fierce and mercilessly malignant one! It is the band’s highlight, collecting all well-experienced ingredients from the past. The rather ‘traditional’ approach (read: Old School) reminds me to bands as Deceased, Hobbs’ Angel Of Death or Dallas-based Rigor Mortis, coloured with elements from Celtic Frost, Carnivore (the American one) and Sacrifice (the Canadian one), spiced with riffing details in the earliest vein of Possessed, Tormentor or Bathory, and flavoured with headbang-joy à la Nuclear Assault, Hirax or even Sathanas and Vulcano – and it comes with modest hints of Nunslaughter, of course. This is the kind of Thrash / Death / Black Musick that ruled the underworlds during the earliest years. But it does not sound ‘passé’ (at least not to me), even though everything (performance, song structures, yet also the sound) is eighties-based.

86/100

Ivan Tibos.