Frontman, Ebola, has been playing what he calls "Necro Mental" under the black metal moniker Cryfemal since 1996. The Tenerife group had been defunct for a time, but last year it was resurrected to record its seventh album, D6s6nti6rr. Now, with the help of the esteemed label, Osmose Productions, Cryfemal hopes to make their 20th anniversary a grim and memorable one. The band recently played Maryland Deathfest as well as New York City, and are confirmed to play the next Satan's Unholy Abomination festival. So where does 20 years of black metal madness lead?
To just that, really: madness. I listen to a lot of black metal, but I'm not sure I have heard other vocals quite like this. The closest I can think of off the top of my head may be Zom, but they have a much crustier feel. These maniacal screams are those of a man either in mortal pain or complete bloodlust. Not screeching, not croaking...these vocals forgo many of the classic benchmarks of tr00 black metal vocals. Instead we get a bestial howl that is incredibly raw, and one that made me a little uncomfortable for the duration of the album. When it comes to this genre, being disconcerting and off-putting is really the best thing you can do, so kudos for that.
As for the instrumentation, this is where the band's grounding in kvlt roots still comes through. As in the old days, less is more when it comes to D6s6nti6rr. Cryfemal don't engage in a lot of fancy musicianship. Instead the focus is on choosing a satisfactorily ominous tremolo melody and carrying it ever-onwards into the abyss. The songs sometimes come off as funeral marches, especially "Bajo Astral" and "Ultimas Palabras." Many of the songs have a pretty doomy pace, though there are some forays into faster material like my personal favorites, "Profanatism" and "Requiem Eterno." The blastbeats on the latter combined with the fierce guitars conjure images of a grim reaper flying in a chariot of flames. And those D-beat transitions? Muy bien.
Final word: blackened to the core. While the compositions on this album don't excite me very much in terms of innovation, they do what black metal does best: tell you to f#@k off with your judgement and opinions. In that sense, this may be one of the most successfully "black metal" releases of 2016. It's vile, aggressive, and wholly upsetting. Everything about this album makes me feel either depressed or uncomfortable. And yet I keep listening to it. Morbid fascination I suppose; but the songs themselves are enjoyable in their own strange way. You should check it out for yourself. It released today.