Crematory - Antiserum (2014) [Limited Edition]

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Crematory - Antiserum (2014) [Limited Edition]

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It is not a secret; it has never been actually, maybe just a means to frighten others. Largely stated rather bluntly over the years, but our demise is pending, this time, hurdling another version of our death, by a deadly virus. Plenty of movies about were produced; lots of zombie flicks and illiterate B-Sides skirmishes were inflicted upon the public to stretch the boundaries of imagination. The German CREMATORY probably didn’t have to undergo brainstorming in order to come up with the theme, yet their Industrial / Gothic Metal manner, which has been developed over the years, contributed to a futuristic horror world thrown right in the face evaluating by their tracklist of their new album, "Antiserum", via SPV / Steamhammer Records. Definitely, judging by this album in general, this is not the CREMATORY I used to know and admire; devoted to indulge Death Metal with their Gothic presence, yet at least I am grateful that these guys haven't really lost their touch in getting right through the punch lines.

In comparison to earlier releases that emphasized the downfall of the Death Metal elements of the band's music, for example "Awake", "Act Seven", "Believe" and even "Revolution", which was back in the day the second album of CREMATORY that I got to know, this new release accentuates the marginal process of the iron welding Industrial revelation of CREMATORY, laying down the lines in a closer proximity to RAMMSTEIN or DEATHSTARS or even a part time DJ SKAZI rather than their older image, which was much preferable by yours truly. The album's songwriting presents formulations of Pop at the most, getting right there to the punch lines, a chorus usually combining heavily low end growls along and clean vocals. Other than that, the image remained practically the same all throughout each and every one of the songs, other than the intro; nothing really varies, like a repetition with different sartorial. I guess that the band's musical ideas would be perceived as pretty obvious, however, CREMATORY maintained a fine standard on producing catchy tunes, filled with a heavy and thick blackened Metallic negativity prolonging a slow demise, in an emotional kind of way, spreading the drama all over the place with great vocals and groovy rhythms, as elegant as always.

The title track, "Antiserum" and "Irony Of Fate" are the album's highly expressed tracks in terms of music, former being somewhat melodic with its guitaring, there is a slight reminder of the early 00's stuff, like dreadful hymns, on a positive note, smudged by utter bitterness, yet quite magical. "If You Believe" and "Inside Your Eyes", insinuating the duo lingual German meets English combo of lyrics, nice tune to it, catchy tunes following the band's tradition, not that brilliant music wise, but for a reason there I didn't care that much as even if this formula has been suffocated for quite a while. The emotional ends, though with a bit of frostiness, paved under a fine greyish foundation of simple implanted Industrial Goth. Closing this down, I expected a bit more out of this album as CREMATORY has been delivering heart throbbing tunes for a vast period of time, and I believe that they are a bit stuck in the Pop monograms way too much, and a fresh perspective is urgently needed.

by Lior "Steinmetal" Stein, metal-temple

Crematory has always been a pretty hard sell around these parts. Let's face it, their entire 'death/groove metal with keyboards and clean chorus parts masquerading as Gothic metal' aesthetic just doesn't look good on paper, nor is it something the American extreme metal audience is likely to open their minds to and embrace, where you can really see the Euro scene into bands like Atrocity, Dreadful Shadows and Theater of Tragedy digging on it. That said, there have been a number of albums or individual songs by these Germans which I have fallen prey to, because as goofy as the style might seem with Felix's grunts mixed into the barebones chugging and flighty techno/orchestral synthesizers, the band can actually write a catchy fucking song or two. One that never eludes me is "Red Sky" from their 2004 album Revolution, sticks to me like glue and I can't pry it off no matter what solvent I used to dissolve it. But being that they write what is essentially darker 80s New Wave pop circa Depeche Mode or Peter Murphy repackaged into a death metal skin, I can see how they would possess a limited appeal…

Antiserum is an interesting record at first because it takes a visual turn into a possibly conceptual, science fiction territory which is further emphasized by what we might have once considered 'futuristic' keyboard pads, the sort that weren't uncommon in radio house/techno tracks from the 90s; still used a lot in Asian pop soundtracks for dancing video games. So take those sorts of melodies, and apply an undercurrent of dense chugging riffs, which admittedly do at least attempt to be catchy themselves rather than 100% banal palm muted insipidness, then layer on the death growls and cleaner, deep male choruses redolent of Finnish Goth metal bands like H.I.M. or To/Die/For, or for a closer comparison, fellow Germans Darkseed on some of their later output. This is what Crematory have served up here. The production is clean as a whistle, but that doesn't mean the guitars lack an ounce of natural grime, punch to their grooves. Drums aren't exactly intense but they are at the very least level and potent enough to stand alongside the rhythm guitars, and the keys and vocals both distinguish themselves with plenty of clarity. This is quite simple stuff, lacking much by way of musical complexity or innovative ideas, but the one thing Crematory have going for them is that this whole sort of 'rave metal for Euro-Goths' would seem so damn obvious that you wonder why more bands don't go for it, and as a result, these guys automatically sound distinct.

I mean, when I hear a Crematory tune, I know exactly what band I'm listening to, and the fact that they've survived for over 20 years and have just released their twelfth full-length speaks to their perseverance, and a reasonable level of success. SOMEONE is into this stuff, or they wouldn't have had such a long relationship with high profile European labels like Massacre, Nuclear Blast and now Steamhammer. On the other hand, Antiserum is far from the band's most sugary, memorable material. I kept feeling underwhelmed whenever they'd open up to the full-on chords and Felix's singing voice for some chorus, they just never really stick the landing. It all 'works', there's nothing remotely offensive or pathetic about what they've written here, and to be fair there is plenty of variation, from songs that focus more on the electronic/industrial side to those that implement your standard metalcore palm-muted pit slams and then wax atmospheric with them, to the more soaring Gothic metal tunes redolent of the other German bands I mentioned in the first paragraph of this review. 'Heartfelt' might seem a silly contrast when you hear Felix belting out his gutturals in a tune like "Welcome", but these guys (and gal) have always been sincere, and apart from the decision to go from a more pure death metal sound (Transmigration, 1994) to the more eloquent, catchy …Just Dreaming, they have remained persistent in crafting their sound.

Ultimately, this one sort of disco danced into one of my ears and then raved on out the other, but apart from the cheesy limited edition bonus EBM/techno remixes of the tune "Shadowmaker", nothing was outright bad. They know how to set the stage and develop their ideas out to their natural conclusions, but I just didn't think the note progressions and melodies here were all that interesting, whereas earlier records like Awake and Revolution had a fair degree of staying power. Anyway, Crematory has always faced a bit of an uphill battle…the death growls often prove too much for the Goths, and the industrial components and clean singing parts too accessible for the death mavens. If anyone out there is interested in a happy medium between the two, or loves stuff like Sweden's Pain, Darkseed, Dreadful Shadows' Futile, or meatier European EBM with more guitars, then this may just fill that gap. Still, I'd recommend a half-dozen of their older albums over this any day, several of which I've already named, and here is a case where the cover art proved much more compelling than the musical content. This isn't exactly bad…they're just capable of better.

by autothrall, metal-archives

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Crematory - Antiserum (2014) [Limited Edition]

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Crematory - Antiserum (2014) [Limited Edition]

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Crematory - Antiserum (2014) [Limited Edition]

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