CRUCIFYRE

If you've not yet felt the tremors created by this one, you soon will. An album that registers this high on the Richter scale will not go unnoticed. One of the best Pulverised releases of at least the past year, CRUCIFYRE's "Infernal Earthly Divine" comes with at team of heavyweight death metal players with resumes that include GENERAL SURGERY, MORBID, REGURGITATE, and NASUM. No wonder it sounds like a one-off gig in Hell's Civic Arena performed in tribute to the Horned One himself!

Song-centric and grooved up death metal is a fitting synopsis, but vintage thrash metal that emphasizes SLAYER-infused licks is every bit as important to CRUCIFYRE's diabolical formula. Led by the Cronos-by-way-of-LG-Petrov vocals of Erik "Tormentor" Sahlstrom, "Born Again Satanist", "Thessalonian Death Cult", and "Witch Hunter" are three that bring the King/Hanneman pain, not the least of which includes a couple of classic introductory builds in the cases of "…Cult" and "…Hunter". As a matter of fact, "Witch Hunter" is praiseworthy as a number that also adds SODOM to the mix and ends up sounding like an unearthed lost classic. Clocking in at seven minutes, a demonic roller and epic piece of malevolence called "Hellish Sacrifice" follows with a similar blend of influences, albeit with sections of spooky keys and female vocals (sung and spoken); a pleasant surprise for sure. And that's not the half of it!

Throw in a significant NECROPHOBIC element (e.g. "Kiss the Goat") and a pair of ENTOMBED-meets-VENOM odes to Luciferian obeisance in "A.W.W.S./…of Hell" and "Hail Satan" and "Infernal Earthly Divine" ends up one of the first mandatory metal purchases of 2011. This is thrashing death metal that succeeds on two levels: musical impact and head banging fun. We're talking Stockholm death and hellish thrash. What else could you possibly need to know to make the damn buying decision?