Today, American black/death institution Crucifier stream the entirety of their highly anticipated third album, Led Astray, at the Death Metal Promotion YouTube channel. Set for international release on April 12th via Iron Bonehead Productions, hear Crucifier‘s Led Astray in its entirety exclusively HERE.
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 have kept consistent to their blasphemous, blackened death metal style steeped in the truly ancient and most underground ways.
Now, two years after their weird & wild Say Your Prayers mini-album, Crucifier align 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 sound positively primal here but never primitive; while these nine screeds of blasphemy might confuse or insult normcore listeners, there’s an extremely considered & calculated delirium behind their blackened devilry. As such, the “tight looseness” that’s characterized Crucifier‘s work to date gets sharpened to an enviable degree as these nine labyrinths surge and storm with a paradoxical / 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 have delivered a modern classic of blackened death metal in Led Astray!
In the leadup to its international release this Friday, hear Led Astray in its entirety exclusively HERE, courtesy of the Death Metal Promotion YouTube channel. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Crucifier (USA)’s Led Astray
1. Smite…
2. Feed the Furnace
3. In Hircine Splendor
4. Biers of Catholic Bones
5. With Cornu and Peccant Breath
6. Trafficking with the Devil
7. Serenaded by the Angels’ Shrills
8. Harbingers of Apollyon
9. An Endeavour of Rats
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