Review: CROMLECH – Eschatological Horrors

Year: 2017
Label: Dark Blasphemies Records (CD) / Hells Headbangers (LP)
Rating: 8,7 / 10

For quite a long period of time, I greedily absorbed the Swedish Death Metal sound, and as a result, of course, I got overeated. In fact, few people manage to introduce at least some peculiar elements into it, so when you heard one classic Swedish Death Metal band, you can say you heard almost everything that the genre has to offer. Today I only listen to the first two albums of ENTOMBED, the whole GRAVE, plus to something from the modern era, like TORMENTED.

Therefore, it was very unexpected to come across "Eschatological Horrors", a collection of demo recordings by the Swedish band CROMLECH made in 1991-1994. There is a professional guitar onanist in Sweden named Rogga Johansson. All his life, in all his countless projects, he's making the same thing: crosses Swedish and modern American styles of Death Metal. Occasionally, he hits the bull's eye (THE GROTESQUERY), but usually produces a sterile product in which “death” means only the threat of death from boredom (modern MASSACRE, HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY, THOSE WHO BRUNG THE TORTURE, THE SKELETAL etc. etc). So, at the daw of 1990s, the guys from CROMLECH decided to try and do the same thing, and oh boy, they did it all right!

The compilation starts with a high-quality studio demo from 1993, and the band's idea is best heard on it. It's a fantastic combination of Swedish heaviness with American intensity and complex rhythms. The darkness that reigns in music has a very specific, unique character. It's something between the searing frost of old Florida and the entombed, gravely cold of Stockholm. Somehow familiar, and at the same time a completely different dimension where you have not been before. This is a very important thing, if you ask me.

Another important point is the complete absence of punk and rock'n'roll bullshit, which makes me unable, for example, to listen even to the debut album of DISMEMBER. It's not that CROMLECH is purely barbaric, skull-crushing music; there is a place for gloomy melodies here. But not for frivolity, even small elements of which can destroy the dark aura of monsters like "Clandestine", not to mention weaker albums.

Each of the four demos has its own approach to the genre, and they are all more or less equally competent. The recordings of 1991, 1994 and 1993 were made in studios, so the sound in them is not much inferior to the albums of those years, and a certain lack of budget only adds authenticity and darkness to the music. The first (in the order of placement on the disc) demo is the most technical, the second is the heaviest and saddest, the third is atmospheric and putrid. The vocal style is also different everywhere. The demo of 1992 was obviously recorded by the band independently at the rehearsal point, because the sound in it is raw, noisy and floating, and the vocals have no additional effect. But again, the most important point is that the songs on every demo, even on the very first one, are just wonderful. This isn't a "material", but killer hits that could compete with compositions like “Into the Grave“ and ”Drowned".

I don't know why the careers of most CROMLECH musicians ended with these demos. Only two of them returned to the scene in 2017 with the band CARNAL SAVAGERY, but this is rather a sad story, because the potential of CROMLECH was huge. Well, at least now you can pay them respect by listening to "Eschatological Horrors".