Crurifragium - "Beasts of the Temple of Satan" (Invictus Productions, 2017)

Band: Crurifragium
Title: Beasts of the Temple of Satan
Genre: Bestial Black/Death metal
Year: 30th January 2017
Time: 31 min
Rating: 89/100













Total devastation. Uncontrollable chaos and fury. The Planet Earth attacked mercilessly by the colossal hordes of Satan for the ultimate desolation. I think that these are the feelings that has necessarily provoke every bestial black/death metal album, conceiving the ears of the listeners as something to torture. And these are just the feelings that I feel every time I listen to "Beasts of the Temple of Satan" of Crurifragium from Seattle, Washington (USA). For the truth, this debut album is the sacrilegious coronation of a band once known as Warpvomit, the old moniker with which they release only a demo then reissued in a compilation disseminated by Iron Bonehead Productions in 2016 and titled "Barbaric Triumph of Evil". If all this isn't enough, there is need to say that some members of Crurifragium plays also in Demoncy, an historic US black metal band, and this is a very good curriculum yet. Now stop with the introductions and see what Crurifragium. have to offers to us with this album released by the Irish label Invictus Productions.

Opened by the intro "Behold (Evangelation)" (but, as every opening intro, I skip it after the first listening of every album!), the unspeakable massacre of "Beasts of the Temple of Satan" starts really with "Stigmata Excruciation" and, from here, there will be no hide for no fuckin' one! This because Crurifragium are very devoted to the cult of Blasphemy, and they don't hide this big influence but playing, at the same time, with good personality and good dynamics.

Firstly, the intensity of their music is so adorably excessive that there are two ultra-grindcore tracks, which are the atomic 45 seconds of "Flayed Angels" and the more structured 80 seconds circa of "Utter Sadism" while, in the middle between these songs, there is the short liturgic intermezzo of "Vespers for the Massacred", able to give an (illusory) breath to the listeners. In fact, for the rest of the album we are talking about 3-4 minutes' songs played with incredible fluidity and intensity, also when Crurifragium prefer to slow down the tones through more reasoned structures rich also of groovy tempos, like in the case of the titletrack.

But the bestial intensity of Crurifragium is due, for example, to the drummer Purveyor of Destruction, that has a very imaginative style with many dynamics for the genre. It's also due to the performances of the two guitarist Horned Despoiler of the First Temple and False Goatprophet Messiah, that spews forth many rape guitar solos spitting out also a bunch of painful feedback in a manner very close to the Canadians Radiocative Vomit, so to emphasize greatly the aura of chaos and insanity breathable throughout the entire album. Moreover, the same guitarists vomits their anthems to Satan and to the black holocaust through more and more abominable series of vocals, showing, also here, an excellent variety of solutions. But fortunately and as taught by Slayer in "Reign in Blood", all this terrifying intensity is witnessed into only 31 minutes of lenght. At the same time, know that you must listen to these 31 minutes through a very hostile and raw production where the rhythmic guitars are a bit relegated with the result to bring out the bass of the lamented Misanthrofuhrer the Architect of Extinction (RIP 2016) in some songs like "Crucified Bastard".

In other words, "Beasts of the Temple of Satan" destroys many today's unsuccessfully attempts to play some bestial black/death metal in the right way, and, surely, it bring back high the evil banner of this genre on these pages after my scorching delusions about "Veneration of Armageddon" of Goatblood. I say this also because a final track like "The Horns of Power" (the only one yet previously recorded), with its death bells followed by a blasting and painful double guitar solo, is perfect to imagine the triumph of Satan on a Planet Earth destined now to an atrocious end. Total devastation completed.

Tracklist:

1 - Behold (Evangelation) (intro)
2 - Stigmata Excruciation
3 - Unfurl the Banners of Evil
4 - Flayed Angels
5 - Exalted Blasphemous Trinity
6 - Vespers for the Massacred
7 - Slaughterers of the Flocks
8 - Utter Sadism
9 - Crucified Bastard
10 - Beasts of the Temple of Satan
11 - The Horns of Power

Line-up:

Horned Despoiler of the First Temple - vocals/guitars
False Goatprophet Messiah - vocals/guitars
Misanthrofuhrer the Architect of Extinction
Purveryor of Destruction - drums

Track Stream:

https://soundcloud.com/invictusproductions/crurifragium-stigmata-excruciation

BandCamp Invictus Productions: https://invictusproductions666.bandcamp.com/album/beasts-of-the-temple-of-satan