Crematory – ‘Monument’ CD

German death metal (early), now turned gothic metal band, formed in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany in 1992, Crematory broke up in 2001 and reformed in 2003 to release the album’ Revolution,’ a largely progressive effort which brought the band into more accessible techno-metal territory than ever before.

Their sound has often been compared to early-Sentenced, Fear Factory, and Dark Tranquillity. The band received its earliest recognition in the mid-1990s by touring with My Dying Bride, Tiamat, and Atrocity. Much like the latter two groups, the band had begun as traditional death metal, then evolved with an industrial music and gothic metal musical direction on later albums.

‘Monument’ carries its symbolic title with justification and the twelve impressive songs are undoubtedly a tangible monument to this group’s amazing creative powers. In line with this, the cover artwork is both classy and sublime: for the third time in succession, Crematory worked with Hungarian artist Peter Sallai. As in the productional collaboration between Markus Jüllich and Kristian Bonifer, the band has relied on tried and tested collaborators without repeating or indeed copying themselves.