Band – Cranial Disorder
Album – Congenital Depravity
Country of Origin – Indonesia
Genre – Brutal Death Metal
Release Date – July 10, 2024
Label – Lethal Scissor Records
Author – Hayduke X
Today, we are proud to introduce the track Compulsive Savagery by Cranial Disorder from their upcoming debut full length “Congenital Depravity.” I’ll let the band introduce the savage track, but be sure to drop below the player to read my full album review:
This song is very complex on the guitar front, with so many twists and turns. We tried to combine a brutal death metal backbone with more old school elements, paying close attention to the flow and groove of the track. It’s pretty much a mix of blast-beats and groovy parts. It’s a song that dates back to our early days and you can tell what sort of music we were listening to at the time. It may not sound like modern day brutal death metal, but in the end we don’t play music to follow trends. Fuck that! We play what we feel like and ‘Compulsive Savagery’ is one of our favourite tracks so far.
“Congenital Depravity” is the latest in a line of brutal death metal albums coming out of Indonesia and the surrounding region. Though these albums (as with music coming from any country in any genre) are hit or miss, this one is definitely a hit. The Kalijaga quartet takes the corpse of old school death metal and re-animates it with an unrepentant spirit of brutality. The zombie corpse then jumps up and crowd-kills everyone in the vicinity (transforming them into zombies as well…yes, this is exactly how it works), all while two-stepping through the pit.
Cranial Disorder has only been an active band since 2019. The group has one prior release, a demo entitled “PromoSick 2022” released in 2022. That release gained some buzz, but this is their true introduction to the wider world of metal, and wow to they make a statement through that introduction! Behind the kit, Faruk is absolutely relentless, sending forth waves of pings, blasts, and double bass. The crisp, dry-but-not-too-dry production on the drums is sheer perfection, exactly how I like it for this style. The rumbling waves sent out by Ijakul on bass splinter timber and crack granite. Max’s vocals are harsh growls, but with enough intonation to be deciphered, at least partly, by those of us who have developed an ear for it. But really, it’s the riffs. More than anything else, “Congenital Depravity” is about the riffs. Alan wields the axe like he’s going into the final battle of the final war of humanity,…and I’m not sure which side he’s on.
What a way to start a career! In a subgenre full of boring cookie cutter riffs and cookie monster growls, this young Indonesian band innovates by judiciously integrating in other styles of death metal and by a driving dynamism (and of course by having waves of quality riffs).
Pre-order the album from the Lethal Scissor Bandcamp page or website.
Biography: Hayduke X has been writing for MoshPitNation since June of 2016. He is also a contributor to The Metal Wanderlust. Prior to joining the MoshPitNation team, Hayduke published reviews on his own blog Rage and Frustration. In addition, he has DJ’ed an online metal radio show of the same name as his blog, written for TOmetal.com, done interviews for Metal Rules, and collaborated with The Art of B Productions to create video interviews with a wide variety of bands.
