Band:	Cruxifiction
Album:	The Coming
Style:	Melodic black metal, Death metal, Thrash metal
Release date:	April 04, 2011
A review by:	Troy Killjoy

01. Haunting Hypocrisy
02. The Coming
03. The New Messiah
04. Death Is The Only Way
05. The Silent Traitor
06. Burn On A Cross
07. I'll Bless You

Anti-Christian French extreme metallers (got all that?) Cruxifiction are a relatively "new" band, primarily composed of members from pagan black metal outfit Valhôll. The Coming, the band's full-length debut, offers a sharp mix of high-intensity melodic black metal with a bit of death metal's most significant element: brutality. Compared by the label to fellow French black metal band Deathspell Omega, Cruxifiction are anything but similar, and have much more in common with Portugal's Corpus Christii (as stated by the band members themselves).

Keeping with the theme of brutality, Cruxifiction do an excellent job at separating themselves from the rest of the melodic black metal scene by simply focusing on how to infuse melody with aggression. That certainly doesn't sound like a groundbreaking move at all, but the outcome of such an attempt - at least this time around - is that of a melodic album with tons of bite. It's almost more brutal than it is melodic.

You don't just sit there and bob your head and think of how "nice" this sounds, you put this on your portable music player, grab a butcher knife in each hand, and head on down to the 5:00am mass where crowds of Christians pray in total vulnerability, and just let your arms swing violently.

When the walls have been covered in enough God-loving cranberry sauce, make for the Sunday school. There's a brief moment - kudos to those of you who find it - where these French extremists take out their aggression in the form of apparently sacrificing (or just straight up slaughtering) a little baby. What better moment to run rampant in a room filled with children...wielding knives stained with the blood of their parents?

Okay, this review got away from me. But that's what this album does, it just makes you want to bang your head go on a Christians-only killing spree in the name of Satan. The songs blend together slightly and the "crazy" factor begins to settle down near the end of the album, but repeated listens are far from a torturous process and some of the songs are really catchy. It's a well-executed debut that showcases the band members' abilities and potential, suggesting these guys could fine-tune their sound in the near future and release one of those kvlt recordings we all yearn for.


MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/cruxifiction666