The song you’re about to hear bears numerous hallmarks of skull-cleaving brutality even before you hear a single note. The song’s name is “Horrific Existence“. The album’s name is Horrific Existence. The band call themselves Cranial Engorgement. And feast your eyes on that album art up there by the renowned Pär Olofsson. The message comes through loud and clear, doesn’t it?
But all of those hallmarks still may not prepare you for the traumatic effect of the music itself, which we’re bringing your way through an official music video, or for the album as a whole, which is this California band’s debut full-length, scheduled for release on February 10 by Gore House Productions.
Photo by Dylan Avery
A dark and even dreamlike melody provides an introduction, but that’s soon followed by a bone-splintering, jack-hammering attack, segmented by bursts of vicious, scything frenzy. While monstrous, gurgling gutturals and feral howling claw at your skull, the band hammer the grooves into your cranium so hard that you may wind up a few inches shorter by the time the music ends. It’s a prime piece of merciless death metal savagery.
By way of further background about the new album — which includes a guest appearance by John Gallagher from Dying Fetus — we have a couple of statements from the band to share with you, beginning with this one from drummer Jonathan “Kraken”:
“Horrific Existence is a 5-year work of fine art from creating to perfecting and mastering this 11 track album. This was a fun and crazy experience for all of us in the Cranial family, but nothing came easy for any of us. We all worked our asses off to show our fans and ourselves how truly passionate we are about our craft in music and most importantly Death Metal itself.”
And here’s what vocalist/guitarist Noah Lopez tells us about the album art:
“The only reference we gave Olofsson, was the album title. Pär not only delivered exactly what we were looking for but also completely shocked us with how awesome this art piece was. All of us like things to look natural and straight to the point and Pär gave us exactly what we wanted”.
As mentioned, Horrific Existence is set for release on February 10, 2017, via Gore House Productions (both CD and Digital). To place a pre-order, visit this page:
http://www.gorehouseproductions.com/cranialengorgement
The track list is below, followed by our video premiere.
1. Prelude to Horror (Intro)
2. Dawn of The Final Day
3. Conceived into The Suffering
4. Mongoloid Massacre
5. Slithering Savior
6. A Living Hell
7. I Am God
8. Molded by Cruelty (Feat. John Gallagher)
9. In Loving Memory (Instrumental)
10. Horrific Existence
11. Sodomized and Left to Die
Links:
https://instagram.com/cranial_engorgement/
https://www.facebook.com/CranialEngorgement