The Art of Crucifying

Who wants to listen to a band called Jumpin' Jesus? In the annals of stupid metal band names, this one sits alongside Demented Ted and Lemming Project. Like those bands, Jumpin' Jesus played a serious kind of old school death metal that was antithetical to their light-hearted name. Considering that these guys formed back in 1989, there were still some good monikers available back then. Sometimes a name just 'sticks' and the band members never bother to change it.

Anyway, the band released one album (“The Art of Crucifying”) and played violent, energetic death metal with plenty of speed. They displayed an abundance of influences. The drummer and the vocalist sounded like they wanted to be in Terrorizer (the vocalist sounds like Oscar Garcia). The guitarists played wild and unpredictable riffs and solos, resembling a less focused version of the first Massacra album. Some of the songs remind me of Deicide, but more chaotic and less groovy. There is also some ultra-violent thrash riffing, like Kreator on "Pleasure to Kill". This is a reminder that Jumpin' Jesus hailed from the North Rhine-Westphalia conurbation, near the epicentre of Teutonic thrash.

The side-effect of these varied influences is an album that sounds jumbled. The songs are an array of sundry riffs and solos, spliced together without much thought. Everything flits around in a frenzy, but the songs don’t have the simplicity of Terrorizer or the warped coherence of Morbid Angel. The album is also too long, and most versions have an extra song (“Lost Yourself”) on the end. Jumpin' Jesus had riffs coming out of their veins, but could have improved this album by spending more time arranging these riffs. The wild, feral, disorganised approach has its benefits in death metal (e.g., bands like Grotesque), but some focus is required. This album sounds like it was made in a rush.

“The Art of Crucifying” will appeal to old school death metal diehards, and probably some old grindcore fans too (of bands like Terrorizer and Repulsion). The album has a decent production and the individual elements are all fine (i.e., riffs, vocals, drumming, etc.). The band were also extreme for their time, which is refreshing when compared to more measured German death metal bands like Morgoth and Atrocity. Being honest though, this is third-tier death metal and nothing more.

Acts of the kind were not a rarity in the early-90 when the technical/progressive side of the field literally exploded on both sides of The Atlantic. This band joined the fray of more technically inclined thrash/death metal hybriders (Baphomet, Assorted Heap, etc.) although their chaotic, intentionally dishevelled at times style sided them more with their American brethren from the so called “chaotic intricacy” circle like Hellwitch, Vicious Circle, and Nokturnel.

In other words, we have a flamboyant, over-the-top technical/progressive metal outfit whose very eventful delivery may not be to everyone’s taste. The very frequent time and tempo alternations may easily make one dizzy, and the thrash metal fanbase may lose its patience with it due to the regular brutal blasting escapades. As chronologically it precedes every other album of the mentioned acts save for Hellwitch’s mythical debut, of course, it can rightfully be viewed as one of the earliest exercises on overwhelming complexity which became more common much later.

As such this effort will recall the exploits of quite a few other bands, future and also present at the time. “Out of the Unknown” bursts into a fountain of brutal violent rifforamas which become more and more technical until more linear decisions come forward only to be replaced by bigger musical perplexity, the latter very reminiscent of same year’s Atheist’s “Unquestionable Presence”. “Braincramps” is a short hectic shredfest with interesting slower insertions, a curious co-existence which goes on with “The King of Worms”, another puzzling chaotic carnival with a more thrash-fixated approach and superb melodic leads. “Cloning the Future” provides more food for bewilderment with piles of technical riffs the several more orthodox passages present barely finding room “to breathe”.

“Chaingang” begins with an alluring acoustic etude, but what follows is exemplary technical/progressive fiesta with gorgeous melodies floating around to ensure the absorption of the super-technical vortexes those vintage Nocturnus and Theory in Practice. There’s some underlying order to be detected at the start of “Burnt Offerings” not without the help of another quiet motif, but the moment the eccentric tempo shifts resume things go straight into Hellwitch territory, the more aggressive decisions on “Immortal Gain” placing the album more squarely within the death metal roster with echoes of Gorguts and Death. “Rotten Flesh” is built on contrasts moving from relatively pacifying stomping sections to ultra-fast “skirmishes” those not far from the not shaped yet at the time “dazzling brutality” movement (Suffocation, Cryptopsy, etc.); and “Thru In4cers I’s” follows a similar pattern only unleashing a more dishevelled assembly of sounds which reach the ultimate chaos to still pretty listenable results thanks to a few astounding mazey configurations. All gets calmed down on “Lost Yourself” which loses the complexity to a large extent, exiting this roller-coaster in a more conventional manner with flashes of more exuberant ingenuity here and there.

A most tantalizing showdown that must have been the talk of the underground back then, the band very well aware that with a delivery, as well as a name, like that they would never have a chance to receive mainstream baptism. And yet, the German scene warmly welcomed this recording as it had already warmed up to similar exhibitions of musical dexterity: just remember Atrocity’s extraordinary “Hallucinations” released a year earlier, and with consideration of the stirring of another movement around the same time in the guys’ homeland with a strong focus on the technical/progressive side of the good old thrash, it only seemed sagacious to propagate more technical experiments like that even if the band had voted to preserve their death metal leanings on potential future recordings...

Such recordings never materialized, though, as the band vanished almost without a trace, their hibernation period lasting up to the present day. Some of the musicians decided to eventually grab their instruments for another spell with the music industry, currently going under the name D-Filer, the approach much more orthodox retro thrash. Not bad at all, but surely nothing like the seismic revolutionary reverberations the guys produced some 25 years ago when jumping, leaping, and hopping saints and deities were awoken and made to listen regardless of their unenviable, dire situation.

The years have been kind to the German death metal scene, and you'll find a large number of bands treading this path in the past decade. Back in 1991, it was an entirely different story. You had a few acts beginning to establish themselves like Atrocity and Morgoth, and a few condemned forever to obscurity like Lemming Project, Incubator and Immortalis. Then there was the ill named Jumpin' Jesus, an anomaly who exploded out of nowhere, into nowhere, leaving us with just this one full-length effort of technical and chaotic death cultivating an influence from both the Florida pioneers Death, Atheist and Morbid Angel, with a wafer of technical European thrash ala Mekong Delta, Destruction or old Pestilence.

The Art of Crucifying was a fairly ambitious, if not wholly original debut for its time, and though the seemingly silly moniker and artwork (which I honestly don't mind) might have turned some off, there can be little doubt that further exposure of their music to the brooding and multiplying hordes of US and European death metal fans would have surely resulted in a promising career, since they were every bit the band that their countrymen Atrocity or Morgoth were at the time, and I'd even grant them the edge in such a comparison, due to their technical prowess. Jumpin' Jesus were hardly shredders or self-indulgent twats, but their compositions tend to shift through a myriad of tempos, leads serving as atmospheric breaks. The mix of the record is typical for its day, with an ominous cadence thanks to the clinical thrashing guitar breaks and Miro Pavelic's grunting, which one might compare to a neanderthal with an ulcer making his disdain known before the daily hunt.

I found it interesting that the album suffers from somewhat of a rift in between its faster and slower material. The band occasionally incorporates sluggish, concrete grooves into the material which were not unpleasant or uncommon, but also not very interesting here. In contrast, the more acceleration they evoke in the riffs, the better the note selections seem to become. Take, for example, the interestingly titled "Thru In4cers I's", which opens with all the calamity of an early Morbid Angel or Vader track, with a number of curious riffs and morbid, spry leads and tech death/thrash rhythms circa Pestilence's Mallevs Maleficarvm, but then opts into a fairly blunt and boring mosh riff after 2:30. This is brief, and thankfully it happens only a few times on the entire record, but leaves the impression that the compositions might have only benefited from just a little more gestation during the writing process.

Nonetheless, the vast majority of the tracks here slay. "Burnt Offerings" segues from a creepy intro into a violent burst of technical thrash, storming leads and a savage, higher pitched vocal style which frankly is phenomenal and far more effective than the gutturals. At the very least, it should have been used more often. "Rotten Flesh" is another riffing monstrosity, with a grind core reminiscent of Repulsion or Napalm Death, proving this band were almost at the Carcass level of fluid, ear-catching morbidity. "Cloning the Future" provides a nearly 8 minute morass of shifting tempos, at times progressive and at times nothing more than a bludgeoning implement. "Braincramps" balances the screamed vocals and grunts over a spastic, virile backdrop, and "Chaingang" has some of the best fast guitars on the entire album, reeking of a German thrash influence ala Destruction or Kreator.

Not all of the tracks here are astounding, or even striking, but taken for what it is, The Art of Crucifying is surely one of the more intense and consistent death metal albums no one ever heard of from the 90s. The lyrics are even fairly well written in English, considering the time frame and the bizarre song titles. The appeal of this could breach a wide range of tastes within this genre, from the unflinchingly old school, to the seasoned death/thrasher, to the more technically inclined metal fan seeking rarities which showed promise beyond their seasons. This is easily one of the bona fide classics of the limited German scene as death metal was starting to transform the landscape elsewhere from cheery to gore soaked, and well worth any sick bastard's time to track down.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Ok, I know what you're thinking, Jumpin' Jesus? Some retarded deathcore band? No. Despite having one of the worst bands names I've ever heard in my life(and horrible album cover to match,) Jumpin' Jesus play surprisingly brutal, old school, complex, and down right weird death metal. The sound is very Floridian in nature, and these guys had to be one of the earlier bands outside of the states to play pure, brutal death metal. The over all vibe is similar to Altars of Madness, mixed with a bit of Cannibal Corpse type of brutal technicality, a pinch of Death's tempo changes, all thrown in a pot and stirred with demonic blood and various hallucinogenic mushrooms. Lots of weird, almost quirky moments that blast out of the speakers randomly. Each song contains about 97 riffs or there about, and some go from a slow Obituary groove to an insane blasting, tremolo grindfest without warning. Normally I don't even like brutal death metal, but these guys are so far out there that I can't help but appreciate it.

This whole thing is really technical, with a distinct dual guitar attack that sounds like 2 Trey Azagthoth's playing at the same time while high on acid, if you can imagine that. Some incredibly wild riffs and solos, I mean the guitars are all over the place, they sound like at any minute they are going to fly out of the stereo and rip your fuckin' head off, which is perfect for death metal. I can't stress enough how crazy the guitar playing is on this, I've never heard anything like it. The drumming is also insane, some of the blast beats, like in "The King of Worms" at about 2:10 are so ungodly fast that it almost sounds synthetic. The vocals aren't quite of the "cookie monster" variety, but they come close, just a very powerful, rumbling growl. At times he does experiment with other types of vox, like a thrash sounding yell, and even a spoken word passage or two, but very sparsely. The bass also rumbles loud for an old death metal band. The production is very good, it sounds like a Scott Burns production minus the clicky bass drum sound.

None of the songs follow any cohesive structure, some of them change up so much it's hard to tell that you're listening to the same song. It's surprising that an album this complex and dare I say 'progressive' was released so early on in the life of death metal. The intro to "Chaingang" starts out with what sounds like a guitar mimicking a human voice maybe, or a bird or something, who the hell knows. Despite the quirky intro that song is one of the best on the album. "Lost Yourself" has some weird echo'd yelling on top of a slow groove, and even a real quick Slayer type thrash break that only lasts for like 12 seconds. I'm not going to get into all of the songs because I can't even tell them apart.

And that leads me to the negative. Most of the songs just feel like a collection of riffs and leads thrown together and played at varying tempos. I have no idea how they could remember these songs well enough to play them live. The whole album becomes exhausting after a while, and sometimes you just wish they would stick with a riff for more than 10 seconds, because some of them are awesome. But if you're just looking for something that's pretty far out there, something a little on the strange side, you should definitely check this out. Like I said in the title, this is one of those things that you just have to hear for yourself, it's hard to put into words.