CRUCIFER - Hell Is for the Hopeful review

CRUCIFER - Hell Is for the Hopeful

Pathologically Explicit Recordings

Every year I'll get a hold of a release by a band who started out decades ago, called it a day but decides to come back for one more shot. Personally I think that's cool and there's been some decent if not great releases by acts who've done the come back route. This is the third full length by CRUCIFER. Their debut album, Festival of Death, came out in 1992. Their second full length, Pictures of Heaven, came out in 1993. So yeah it's been a while for them.

Now in all honesty I don't own anything previously by CRUCIFER as far as official releases go. But back in the day I use to get a ton of demos so maybe I have their Beyond the Realms tape from 1991 in a box out in the shed. And there's a reason for that, well not the shed location thing. CRUCIFER are a Death Thrash act hailing from Virginia. I can't say I remember seeing them at a show. But because bands who are a state away usually come through my area for a show. There's a damm good chance that I've seen em on a bill or maybe they played one of the many past Death Fest shows. I'm not breaking out the old flyers for proof. 

So fast forward to the present and the original line-up of CRUCIFER are back (so that's cool) with this their third full length. Listening to this one I was not shocked to hear that CRUCIFER are still sounding like it's the early 1990's. I mean the sound-bite intros from movies or other people might be different. But musically this is straight up Death Thrash to a point. I like the hate filled vocals. The rhythm section is fairly basic sounding. Some riff packages are savage but hey I can't complain about the soloing which is damm good. 

With that said I do have some problems with this release. First and formost there's way too many sound-bites. I wanna hear Death Thrash not Industrial stuff or kiddy political Thrash bullshit. Be that as it may there's some cool tracks on here like the opening ripper "Soul Within". "Pearls Before Swine" rocks to the point of getting a slam pit going. "Laughing as I Suffer" is a really old school sounding ripper. Other than those cuts I wasn't too enthused about the rest. 

https://www.pathologicallyexplicitrecords.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://crucifertheband.bandcamp.com/album/hell-is-for-the-hopeful