Cadaveric Crematorium is a special band – it’s trying to do its own thing in a sea of clones and redundant brutal experts. It’s not the most groundbreaking band but the best reference to give it would be Broken Hope in the 90s trying to get innovative, breaking away from its ‘The Bowels of Repugnance’ level of brutality. Cadaveric Crematorium is more contemporary, and its flashiness is more comparable to the likes of Terminally the Aborted Ghost, cchanneledthrough the established caveman yet accomplished riff-based Brutal Death Metal template of say Serial Butcher.

What sets this band apart is the level of brutality and the number of variations this band adopts. It’s mind-boggling put together. It’s unpredictable and it’s wholesome. How’s that? And mind you, we’re talking about a genre that’s looked down upon by the conventionalists, at least the Brutal Death Metal part of it. The drummer is all over the place, the riffing department is rife with activity, even resorting to interludes in the middle of the song, that’s right, and the vocalist in comparison is mostly content with thick hoarse roars, well-punctuated to match the music variations.

It’s not a new band – Cadaveric Crematorium from Italy is peddling this style of Death Metal since the 1990s. ‘One of Them’ is the band’s fourth full length whereas newer Brutal Death Metal bands from that country have made more of a mark with an EP or a full length. Most of them are just doing something that’s extreme in its expression, such as say Blasphemer or Antropofagus, or Septycal Gorge or even Hour of Penance for that matter. Yes, there are some that have found their own sound but the rest aren’t doing something remarkable or different to warrant the kind of interest garnered – it’s probably due to the fact of these bands having signed to American labels where this kind of music is huge at the moment.

‘One of Them’ is an eccentric album comparatively, one that isn’t willing to be pigeonholed just yet and that’s good for the band because it’s somewhere in the middle – it’s not wholly extreme nor is it wholly technical like its counterparts. It’s stuck in the between, awkwardly, but it’s not without its charms. There’s more appeal to this band, lasting appeal thanks to its irresistible catchiness, than a short-lived brutal blast that’s likely to be outmatched five years down the line by something even more extreme. The one that you’d come back to is the one with memorability, and instant catchiness or jauntiness, and that’s ‘One of Them’.

There’s quirkiness in the band’s song structures, unpredictability which is like finding a saint in a brothel in this style of music, and a sense of defiant self-confidence, as if oblivious to the rest of the world. It’s this attitude which makes this band relevant now and in the future, even if it’s not doing something remarkable in terms of pushing the sound, but at least it’s not just another Brutal Death Metal band.

[Visit the band's website]

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