crucifiedmortalsAnother ripping thrash album tears your ears to shreds and ensures a course of treatment at the osteopath. This is the second album from Cleveland, Ohio’s Crucified Mortals and the long awaited follow up to 2011’s self-titled debut.

For those unfamiliar with the band, Crucified Mortals are now two blokes, Craig ‘Reaper’ Horval – ex Nunslaughter, Nekrofilth and the brilliantly named and unlikely to ever open a school fete, Sperm Of Antichrist. Craig formed the band in 2001 and has had a plethora of musicians pass through the band at various stages including fellow Nunslaughterers Zack Rose & Jim Sadist (R.I.P.) On this record Craig handles everything apart from the drums which are pounded into dust here by former Acheron guitarist Ash Thomas.

Crucified Mortals know what they’re about and play to their strengths here in a gripping collection of thrashing destruction. Memorable riffs with a slight punky tinge are the order of the day.  ‘Traitor’ has an almost Iron Maiden at 78rpm feel to it, ‘Dusk Of The Advent’ has a ton-heavy opening riff before turning into Slayer’s ‘Black Magic’.

Reaper’s vocals are brilliant, nasty, savage (see what I did there?) and malicious. The bass is filthy and upfront in the mix which I personally really like and it adds to the slightly ‘crusty’ flavour. ‘Ominous Creatures’ is a straightforward ‘Dark Angel’ style thrasher with some super-fast & tight riffing. ‘Kill Upon Command’ is pure Slayer with some intense Lombardo-esque drumming and cool tempo changes.

Now I’ve referenced a few bands above and I don’t want you to think Crucified Mortals sound derivative, far from it. They have this shit nailed down and have taken the best bits of all the classic thrash bands (check out the Tom Araya tribute scream at the start of ‘Hideous’) and blended them to make a sound all their own, a sound that at times seems almost hurtling out of control in the same enjoyable way that the early albums of Kreator & Voivod did, though they never dive of the precipice into chaos.

This is just under forty minutes of pure, sweaty, blasphemous, headbanging thrash…..and who doesn’t love that?

 (8/10 Mark Eve)

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https://crucified-mortals.bandcamp.com/album/psalms-of-the-dead-choir