Crionics

Neuthrone

Candlelight Records 2007

Polish death metal has been steadily establishing a reputation in the underground for its ferocity and technical skill ever since Vader and their progeny, such as Behemoth and Decapitated, crawled forth from the blackened underground so long ago.  Crionics stakes a claim to this proud heritage as well with their third proper release, Neuthrone.  Crionics combines Morbid Angel inspired blasting death metal and futuristic sounding keyboard passages.  But to this end they fail as because instead of sounding fresh both of these angles seem forced and their death metal compositions seem somewhat tired and unimaginative.  I think the intention was to sound adventurous but the keyboard passages give the impression of not belonging to the same album, making any sort of pleasant listening fairly awkward and unattainable.  However the bonus track Black Warriors does sound confident and slays the listener with its driving and engaging riffs to a degree that the rest of the album cannot.  The rest of the songs such as Hell Earth alternate between rapid fire blast beats and furious riffing and galloping slower passages which are catchier yet still fail to grab the listener by their exposed throat.  The production on Neuthrone is another problem as it is really slick and lifeless and sort of robs the material of any sort of energy and rawness that it might have possessed.  Crionics is a band that is not on the same level as its peers within the Polish and worldwide scenes and seems to be treading well worn paths with misguided attempts at trying to sound fresh and unique.  Those attempts would be better invested in writing more memorable and stronger material rather than trying to hide it behind electronic keyboard passages.  I recommend investing your money elsewhere unless you feel the need to obtain every release that comes out of the Polish death metal scene.