Heading up this outfit is the prolific Ebola whose contagion has mutated through various other bands as Cryfemal itself arose from Agaliareth pre new millennium. Since that time there have been six albums plus various splits and EPs during the last decade and a half, all of which I have had no pleasure in listening to until this seventh album landed like diseased bodily fluids onto my review pile. OK I’ll cut the infection metaphors now.
Unceremoniously announcing itself the album detonates into life with “Infestacion”, a tune that owes plenty to the mid-90s black scene when most bands at the time were either sticking to incendiary and truly terrorising black metal song writing or diverting into the avant-garde scene to pastures new and unfurrowed. The opener is very similar to Dark Funeral on their early albums but especially the debut, with a similar stripped raw sound that spews hate filled miasmic terror in every respect, making the follow up, “Atmosfera De Tristitia” a total and uncompromising contrast. Beginning with acoustic guitar and melancholic vocal groans the tune is an antithesis to the opener until it breaks into an epic riff with excellent drum work courtesy Bornyhake who does a masterful job in embedding emotion through various fills and cymbal adornments to texturize all of the songs and when added to the pulsing bass of Satur every facet of the album has been carefully constructed without resorting to any sub-genre dilution. The vocal demonization continues into the track as umbral sinews crawl through allowing the brief acoustic periods to expand and formulate a barren but resplendent obsidian aura.
Casting yourself adrift within the fabric of this album you are sent through ebonised waters that span melodic expanses such as the emotive “Profanatism” to the storm force horror of “Requiem Eterno”. Dividing the album in half allows “Bajo Astral” to blanket the listening experience with more acoustic guitar that is very like classic Viking Bathory but retains individuality as the staggering riff ploughs into the song with a solemn but uplifting melody that is heart wrenching. The musical vision of this album is boundless and whilst I’ve not heard previous material this release stands as a magnificent display of original black metal that links the ferocity of the early bands to the more experimental avenues of say mid to latter era Immortal. There isn’t a weak track on this album with the only negativity potentially being that a lot of what you hear has been done by other bands but whilst the early 90s bands were certainly pioneers in an ever evolving genre it certainly wasn’t always the best, despite the nostalgia projected by the original fans onto those bands. Whilst Cryfemal is a blast from the past it is also beautifully crafted as the slower poise of penultimate tune “Perdido No Cemeiterio” with its funereal riff and ghoulish vocal incursions exhibiting various layers of tormented embitterment, leaving the closing track “Espectros De Belmez” to finish you off with a maniacal onslaught that exudes perniciousness before the ear juddering drop in pace to a soulful riff and accompanying ghostly vocal croaking.
This album is one for any black metal fan favouring the original stance adopted in the early to mid-90s where purulent violence locks horns with poignant and powerfully driven melodies. I can’t find fault with any aspect of the album except for perhaps the clichéd cover art but I suspect the blackened creative blood that courses through Ebola’s vein has not done yet, hence the rating.
(9/10 Martin Harris)
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