Savage Cross - Dilapidation, Disintegration, and Denial of Being [Void Seance - 2013]This rather lengthily titled release offers up a searing & swampy mix of sludge bound black metal crawl, waves of guttural vocals, galloping yet mix buried drums, blacked noise trails, and a rather fucked-up yet foreboding vibe. Behind the Savage Cross project is Richmond, Virginia based Evan Craig, who is most known for his slightly kinky themed yet creative HNW project Ritual Stance. Savage Cross came about in late 2011 to early 2012, and so far has released around 4 or 5 releases. This release comes in the form of CDR- which is presented in a stamped cardboard sleeve with a single Xeroxed insert. The CDR features just a single thirty nine minute track of morbid, lurching, intense yet malevolent blacked jam craft. The track opens up with a slow ‘n’ painful mix of low strung slugedy black metal, cymbal heavy crashin ‘n’ smashing percussion, snaking & sometime jarring layers of guttural ‘n’ bayed blacked vocals, and the odd hints of brooding ‘n’ dark crawling synth craft. At the six minute mark the drums and vocals stop for a moment, so the track can sliding either further back in it’s slowed pace. Fairly soon the vocals reappear, and just like the other elements they’ve become even more slurred & stretched out with monster from the deep Behind the Savage Cross project is Richmond, Virginia based Evan Craig, who is most known for his slightly kinky themed yet creative HNW project Ritual Stance. Savage Cross came about in late 2011 to early 2012, and so far has released around 4 or 5 releases. This release comes in the form of CDR- which is presented in a stamped cardboard sleeve with a single Xeroxed insert. The CDR features just a single thirty nine minute track of morbid, lurching, intense yet malevolent blacked jam craft. The track opens up slow ‘n’ painful mix of low strung slugedy black metal, cymbal heavy crash ‘n’ smashing percussion, snaking & sometime jarring layers of guttural ‘n’ bayed blacked vocals, and the odd hints of brooding ‘n’ dark crawling synth craft. At the six minute mark the drums and vocals stop for a moment, so the track can sliding either further back in it’s slowed pace- fairly soon the vocal reappear & just like the other elements they’ve become even more slurred & stretched out as we get long monster from the deep like belchs, moans & wails. At around the seven & a half minute the track almost moves towards corrupted gothic guitar tinged ambiance, but just when you think things might turn nice, the galloping yet slightly wavering drums kick-in & these are met with more active vocal attack too. The rest of track switches between slowed yet grimly hazed mix of blacked guitar tone, bleack synth throb, deep cackling & guttural reptilian like vocals. Mid pace still murky goth rock meets almost smudged post-rock vibes, onto more galloping drum & blacked instrumental ‘n’ stretched blacked vocal attacks. The whole track has a great constantly thickly malevolent vibe, and the whole thing unfolds in a wonderfully lose & quite haphazard manner, meaning when the pace does sudden shift up or down it all works so well. So all in all “Dilapidation, Disintegration, and Denial of Being” is a rewarding slice of prime evil, dense ‘n’ necro licked sludgy bound blacked metal & blacked noise craft. Really this is a project just seems to get more grimly capvating & brutally hypnotic with each new release it creates. You can pick up a copy direct from Mr Craig here Roger Batty
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