Way to go to establish yourself as a bit of a kvlt act, mentioning the year’s most revered death metal artists in your biog (Vallenfyre, Necros Christos Sonne Adam) who have all released great albums in 2011 should get most fans of the genre sitting up in expectation. Add to this the mysteriousness of a band from deepest darkest South America (well Mexico isn’t that far off the beaten track but…) and a kvlt is born. With this in mind I had very high expectations for this album before play was even pressed. The band themselves are fairly fresh off the slab only forming in 2007 and establishing themselves with demo, EP and split releases. This is their debut album and one brief play had me realising that as far as ideas were concerned they certainly won’t be singing any of their hymns in Sunday school, this is nicely blasphemous stuff make no mistake.
The atmospheric intro ‘Third Day Resurrection (by name sounding like a Morbid Angel off cast) sets things up before the track goes into a gnarly overload.’ It all sounds suitably festering and rank stuff and would no doubt have come across as even more filth ridden if it hadn’t unfortunately turned up with the new Encoffination to battle with for stereo space. The production is a bit bass heavy but that suits it well allowing the chugging tones to rumble and rape their way out the speakers solidly. Singer Rubens (formerly it would seem Rubens The Mercurial Herald) has a nice rough as sandpaper rasp about him and as for the music itself it has a stealthy sort of hard, but not overly brutal melody coursing through it.
‘Putrid Purity’ kind of delivers things warts and all with the pustule laden sores throbbing under the slow monotonous drumming and exploding as the vocals go into a hate filled pitch. The music is not fast at all but it’s certainly morbid, limbering up and threatening as it broods away. Occasionally there is a subtle sounding vortex inducing reverb put onto the vocals making them sound like they are coming through from a void, ready to bite. A flagellating sample from what sounds like it’s from a classic Nunsploitation flick greets ‘Defiling The Altars Of An Absent God’ a track title which really speaks for itself. The words ‘fucking church’ may not be yelled out but you cannot mistake them! There are some nice background female chorals and crashing booms sampled into the background of ‘Church Of Death’ giving the short piece and decrepit Hammeresque feel and the album comes to grim conclusion leaving a vile coating of unease and distaste by final track ‘Repulsive Sanctification Of The Absurd’
This may have slightly shot itself in the foot by mentioning the bands on the PR blurb as frankly it is not as competent or comparable with them. However that is no reason to dismiss Ominous Crucifix in the slightest as this is a solid debut album and I am sure they will claim their crown of thorns as the progress towards Golgotha.
http://www.myspace.com/ominouscrucifix
Pete Woods
MTUK HOME
