Crucified Mortals
Self Titled
7.3
Crucified Mortals play thrash, and they know what they are doing. That stands to reason, though, because this Cleveland act has been grinding its axes in relative obscurity for the past decade. Founded by former Nunslaughter bassist Craig “Reaper” Horval, Crucified Mortals have recorded numerous demos and splits over the last ten years, before finally releasing their full-length debut. Crucified Mortals are not breaking any new ground, but they thrash hard and they thrash well.
Crucified Mortals thrash in a pure Eighties style, free of any death metal or hardcore hybridization. In fact, Crucified Mortals is free of any fucking around whatsoever: no acoustic guitars, no Iron Maiden harmonies, no ballads, and what melody there is comes off as almost incidental. Horval applies the same brutal economy to his vocals, employing a deep, clipped bark with no pretentions toward carrying a tune. As for the drums, expect a lot of snare and not much else. This album survives on a diet of riffs, and little more. This approach seems to have imbued Crucified Mortals with the Spartan-like ability to kick ass with maximum efficiency.
Slayer is a good point of reference for the sound on Crucified Mortals. Although Crucified Mortals cannot quite compete in terms of sheer velocity, the band’s unrelenting attack and penchant at infectious mid-paced grooves á la “Angel of Death” bear the Slayer stamp. In terms of actual riff construction though, Crucified Mortals more resemble bands like Exodus and mid-period Kreator, still viciously aggressive, but not quite as evil and chaotic-sounding as Slayer.
Crucified Mortals' no-frills approach makes for a hard-hitting album, but the downside is that the songs tend to lack an individual identity. Crucified Mortals is filled with great riffs, but the dearth of melody and Reaper’s one-dimensional vocal delivery do little to bind the riffs into individually recognizable compositions. For the most part, however, this does not hamper the listening experience; one can just let the album play and happily bang one’s head when appropriate, which is pretty much all the time.
In this day and age, your choices for thrash are nearly limitless, and Crucified Mortals do not do anything particularly special to elevate themselves above the pack. They can thrash, though, like the dickens. Crucified Mortals is a damn good thrash album: nothing more, nothing less.
