Converted by Decapitation

Crucified Mortal’s started their career before the “NWOTM” began (circa 2004), had they not, it is arguable that this album could’ve turned out far differently; perhaps even yet another Exodus worship band. Crucified Mortal’s were away from the scene, living under a rock; not knowing what was in at the time in the thrash world. Thank Satan for this, as they were away from the trends, ideologies, and influences that every neo-thrash band thought they had to follow. Granted, they don’t bring much new to the table, instead they went down the path that is not very often followed in thrash. This EP isn’t particularly heavy, technical, or even too fast for that matter, but fuck it is raw and evil. And with two of the three band member’s from Nunslaughter, how can you expect anything less?

I am close to convinced that this EP could be labeled as a thrash/death release. While it is obvious the sound is more heavily thrash influenced, the primitive sound of early death metal is more than apparent. It is as is Kreator and Autopsy had a love child so-to-speak. This goes beyond just the vocals, though I was close to being convinced Chris Reifert was the vocal work behind this. The instrumental work on this EP is what truly shares the death and thrash metal influences, with there being enough influence from both genres to no just classify this as straight up thrash or death metal. Again, while this is nothing new, it definitely has not been attempted by many bands; and an even smaller amount of bands are able to pull this mixture of sound off.

It is not to say that I am not fond of the established Bay Area thrash metal sound, but it is great to see a band that doesn’t try to copy the sound to make the 10,000th Bonded by Blood sound-alike album. Not many bands that have strayed away from the stereotypical thrash sound have made a name for themselves, but with bands like Crucified Mortal’s going against the norm hopefully we can see a rise to a “scene” of non-cookie cutter thrash bands. Suffice to say, if you don’t like traveling to far from the norm, musically, chances are you won’t appreciate this EP. But who knows, Crucified Mortal’s might surprise, and impress you. They sure did for me.

Crucified Mortals easily won me over with this EP. To be honest I don't get into very many new thrash metal bands because it seems to be growing as some sort of fashion genre of metal where everyone is in a contest to sound as old school as possible and have more patches on their denim then anyone else. Don't get me wrong, I love old school metal and thrash, but I just can't help but question the motives of all these new bands today. Crucified Mortals, while being a great example of a perfect thrash band, can set themselves apart with ease.

The first thing that will jump out at you is the vocal work done by Craig "Reaper" Horval. It's harsh and violent to the point to where you question whether or not he is actually decapitating someone in the studio while he lays the vocal tracks down. Another thing that this album portrays is that the musicians all seem to have great chemistry. I love Sebastian's style of drumming because it really compliments the guitar and bass work. He's not not overworking himself to be the most impressive drummer in the world, he's letting the music as a whole do the job itself and he has a very down to earth style while still blasting out awesome double bass work and fills along with everything else you would want from a thrash drummer.

Zach Rose and Craig make a great guitar duo on this EP. I'm not sure which one of them is playing the majority of the leads but it's done to perfection, and the double layered riffs are the pure work of horrifying, murderous, and dedicated thrash metal fans. You don't have to be an alcoholic thrash maniac to love this album, so hurry up and get this album and anything else you can by this band.