Cruentus - "Fake" (Triple A Events Records, 2019)

Band: Cruentus
Title: Fake
Genre: Death/Thrash Metal with some Technical tunes
Time: 37.54 min
Release date: 15th October 2019
Vote: 75/100










Fuck, I received this album in physical format in December 2019 from the Italian promotion agency Frantic Mule but only in these days I found the time to listen to it! So, I'm sorry with Frantic Mule for this enormous delay but, finally, here you are the review about "Fake"! This is the second album of a historic Italian band from Apulia called Cruentus, a quintet that was born in the very far 1989 and whose main core since its early times is composed of the guitarist and founder Antonello Maggi, the singer Nicola Bavaro (that had experiences also in acts of the calibre of Schizo and Glacial Fear) and the bassplayer Adriano Boghetich. But the story of Cruentus is a bit special because, in brief, they are so unprolific that their previous (and first) album, "In Myself", was published even in 1996, so they took all the time in the world to work on "Fake"! Now let's see how they took advantage from these 23 years!

Released by Triple A Events Records (it looks that this is its first ever release), "Fake" is very different from "In Myself". In fact, if this last one shown a band playing a death/thrash metal strongly technical and proggy with very long songs, "Fake" is a sort of back to basics with a more impactful and old-school death/thrash metal but without forgetting some technical elements and some features that can also be considered a bit strange, as you'll see soon. Essentially, their sound alternates fast and violent moments (no blast-beats in any case!) with slower tempos that often are atmospheric thanks, for example, to the use of layered clean guitars and that sometimes can be a lot puzzling (i.e. "Spoil the Flesh") like in the vein of the Death during their most progressive period. So, you can understand that Cruentus aren't so obsessed with the purest speed, also because in "Fake" there are many (for a death/thrash metal band, at least) mid-tempo-oriented songs, like "Never Forget", "Blindness Means Watching" or "The Strain" (that's full of arpeggios).

The band tries also to offer some weird combinations like in "Shadows", in which doom metal and a fast metalpunk collide perfectly, and this in the song that is my favourite one of the album not only because it's so intense but also because I think it represents in its entirety the lunatic temper of the Cruentus. A "lunatic temper" that is well represented even in the closing "See You on the Top", an acoustic and instrumental track (like "Timeless"), that was recorded in 2014 and where there is a... trumpet played by the drummer Valerio Di Masi! As you see, the years pass but this old band is still able to create some bizarre soundscapes!

Also the lyrics, that are sung by Nicola Bavaro with his raucous growling vocals, are interesting and deserve a good consideration. I read from an interview to the band made by the Italian InYourEyeszine that "Fake" is a concept-album about the good and evil and the opposites in general (light and darkness...), in the attempt to show that what appears isn't always, if not always, true, also because the "Fake" (through the fake news, for example) is often used in this world "to obtain power and to control the minds". Plus, there are spoken intros quoting famous writers such as Lev Tolstoj and Charles Bukowski, respectively in "Circles" and in "Never Forget". In particular, I like a lot "The Laughing Heart", the Bukowski's poem completely quoted in "Never Forget", so I invite you to read it since it has a strong positive message, that is very useful in these uncertain times.

Now, I think I said almost everything about "Fake". The last things are about the amazing booklet, that was created along the lines of the one of the Slayer's "Divine Intervention" with the band photo (the same above here) that, in practice, is literally a poster; the promotional video that Cruentus made for "Everspace", that I included in "Come on, burn my ears! #8"; and about some flaws regarding the album. In fact, I found not so effective "Blindness Means Watching" since it repeats with little imagination the same things from start to finish and, in addition, it is one of the few tracks in the album without any guitar solos. And I think that the acoustic numbers are too close, and this also doesn't allows to the album to ends with the fireworks. But, said all this, "Fake", as you seen, remains anyway a very good comeback for the Cruentus. Only I hope that the band will not await us other 23 years also for their third album haha!

Line-up:

Nicola Bavaro - vocals
Antonello Maggi - guitars
Domenico Mele - guitars
Adriano Boghetich - bass
Valerio Di Masi - drums

Tracklist:

1 - Circles
2 - Everspace
3 - Spoil the Flesh
4 - Never Forget
5 - Passin' Over
6 - Funambulism
7 - Shadows
8 - Blindness Means Watching
9 - Step by Step
10 - Timeless
11 - The Strain
12 - See You on the Top

FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/Cruentus.1989/
BandCamp: https://cruentus1989.bandcamp.com/
Frantic Mule: https://www.facebook.com/Frantic-Mule-995120390693550/