Review: Caedes Cruenta “Of Ritual Necrophagia and Mysterious Ghoul Cults” [Helter Skelter / Regain Records]

Third album from Greece’s Caedes Cruenta brings us over an hour of manic macabre metal to upset the neighbours with. Eerie samples, moody synths, melodious riffs, scorching solos, and you can even hear the bass… it’s black metal, but not as we (normally) know it. The drumming can be powerful and precise, the synths evocative, and the breakdowns an oasis in the heat of the riffs. There’s a lot to savour, but an equal amount to dismiss at the same time.

A supergroup of sorts, the band comprises of a lot of influences and ideas from across the Greek black metal scene, which pay more than homage to Rotting Christ, but it might be a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth as even though there are some great parts to the album, its direction does not convince and some components can be ugly.

There are plenty of elements that keep you guessing (sometimes to the point of confusion) – the vocals are shared between well performed demonic death growls and horribly grating black metal screams, moody samples clashing with the happy chords lifted from your first book on circle of fifths, solos that can be meditative or meddling, and drumming that goes from bravo to basic. The album is patchy and inconsistent, and if the ugly parts were cut out it would be a much stronger contender to be amongst this month’s best black metal albums.

Release date: February 12, 2021

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