(Album Review) “Unbroken” by CREMATORY

Dark metallers, Crematory, unleash their new album Unbroken. Exploring intense emotional themes surrounding transience, love and pain, their new album combines dark themes with their unique dark sound.

Throughout, Crematory entwine industrial metal influences with the Gothic. The guitars, bass and percussion form a powerful wall of sound that is enhanced through the darkwave/ EDM inspired synth sounds. It’s incredible energetic. The harsh vocals have a very unique tone and texture. There is a demonic edge to the soul wrenching growls. The album opens with the title track, Unbroken. This track opens the album with explosive energy. It brings the heavy along with clean vocals and choir backing which introduce both the EDM and Gothic aspects into this track. The Kingdom sees the clean vocals bring a sensual atmosphere to their sound. This track has a compelling Gothic feel drawing on the dark, deep emotions and fantasy style. The synth choices for this track bring more of a Gothic and symphonic feel, moving away from the energy associated with the dance elements of other tracks on this album.

Inside my Heart sees the harsh and clean vocals of Felix and Connie combine in the chorus of the track. The sinister sound low growls give a huge contrast to the soaring cleans. The joining of these differing textures and tones encompasses their sound and creates something unusual. The instrumentation of this track is ballad-like which adds a theatrical nature. The two voices feel like two separate characters. Lyrically, the chorus of this track is fairly simplistic but it allows the instrumentation and the sound of the vocals to take main prominence. My Dreams Have Died has a strong sense of momentum in the chorus with the rhythm guitars, fast lead melody and backing instrumentation underneath. The chorus has a powerful effect with the vocal line alternating between clean and harsh vocals. The industrial nature of their sound brings in influences from other areas including some sounds reminiscent of Rammstein. Abduction has these vibes with the chord sequence and vocal style feeling particularly similar to Rammstein’s sound. Ending with Like the Tides, the album concludes with a delicately dark track. The beautiful piano tone, strings and soaring clean vocals end the record with a sombre yet ethereal sound. It’s an emotional ballad that provides a striking contrast to the rest of the album without feeling out of place.

Unbroken is a powerful album with intricate layers of detail throughout the instrumentation and vocal arrangement. Crematory have effectively conveyed their thematic ideas through their music. Each track brings a different feel whilst maintaining their unique sound. The album is dramatic, thrilling and intensely emotional.

Release Date:
06.03.2020

CREMATORY live: 
09.04.20 DE – Hamburg / Logo
10.04.20 DE – Berlin / Nuke Club
11.04.20 DE – Hagen aTW / Stocks
12.04.20 DE – Köln / Helios37
01.05.20 DE – Leipzig / Hellraiser
02.05.20 DE – München / Backstage Club
08.05.20 DE – Trier / Mergener Hof
09.05.20 DE – Kaiserslautern / Kammgarn
21.05.20 DE – Frankfurt a.M. / Nachtleben
22.05.20 DE – Erfurt / From Hell
23.05.20 DE – Zwickau / Club Seilerstrasse
30.05.20 DE – Lindau / Club Vaudeville
31.05.20 CH – Bern / Gaskessel

CREMATORY are:
Felix – Vocals
Connie – Rhythm-Guitar & Clean Vocals
Rolf – Lead Guitar
Jason – Bass
Katrin – Keyboards & Samples
Markus – Drums & Programming

“Unbroken” by Crematory track listing:

1.  Unbroken
2.  Awaits Me
3.  Rise And Fall
4.  Behind The Wall
5.  The Kingdom
6.  Inside My Heart
7.  My Downfall
8.  My Dreams Have Died
9.  I Am
10.  Broken Heroes
11.  A Piece Of Time
12.  Voices
13.  Abduction
14.  As Darkness Calls
15.  Like The Tides

Fans can find Crematory at the following locations:

www.facebook.com/CREMATORY

www.crematory.de