CRUCIFIER (Grand Belial's Key) - Led Astray (12" Gatefold LP on Black Vinyl w/ Poster)
United States | Black/Doom/Death
Detailed Description
- 350gsm Gatefold Jacket with inside flooded in black and matte varnish
- 140g vinyl
- A3 Poster on 150gsm Art Paper
- Limited to 500 copies (400x black & 100x gold Vinyl)
One of the longest-running entities in the American underground, CRUCIFIER was formed in 1990 by vocalist/drummer Cazz Grant. While myriad lineups would come and go—and the band's eventual debut album, Stronger Than Passing Time, wouldn't be released until 2003—CRUCIFIER has remained consistent in their blasphemous, blackened death metal style, steeped in the truly ancient and most underground ways.
Now, two years after their weird and wild Say Your Prayers mini-album, CRUCIFIER aligns with IRON BONEHEAD once again for the release of their third full-length, Led Astray. Taking the wandering yet fully locked-in songwriting of that mini to its ultimate conclusion, Led Astray is a masterclass in memorable, METAL riffing and twisted rhythmic thrust.
As is their signature, CRUCIFIER sounds positively primal here but never primitive; while these nine screeds of blasphemy might confuse or insult normcore listeners, there's an extremely considered and calculated delirium behind their blackened devilry. As such, the "tight looseness" that has characterized CRUCIFIER's work to date gets sharpened to an enviable degree as these nine labyrinths surge and storm with a paradoxical and perverse sense of class. Credit the latter largely to the jaw-dropping dual lead-work across Led Astray: an element that's been bubbling in the CRUCIFIER cauldron for years, but which really reaches a superlative level here.
Of course, Grant's vocals are as diabolic as ever, seemingly coming from every direction and hackle-raising in their articulation. CRUCIFIER hereby has delivered a modern classic of blackened death metal in Led Astray!
