Beats and yelling: Caedes Cruenta

Ὅρκος ἐκλεκτῶνOut 30th April on Zombi Danz Records After five years of silence, Greece’s Caedes Cruenta return with an unprecedented document dump of material, spanning an hour and a half in length, a runtime only permissible after the extended period of silence they have subjected us to since the celebrated ‘Of Ritual Necrophagia and Mysterious Ghoul Cults’. More than any Greek act, Caedes Cruenta appear capable not only of revitalising the style championed in the genre’s halcyon days but of expanding the formula itself. They do this first and foremost by linking the dirty ritualism of Necromantia or Medieval Demon with its formative roots in early death metal (a cover of Morbid Angel’s ‘Angel of Disease’ solidifying the connection), and using this as a jumping off point to expand on the bright, heavy metal informed melodicism of Rotting Christ, Varathron, Agatus, and Zemial. The contemporary crop of “Hellenic” black metal is prone to flamboyantly theatrical outbursts, something that…