CROCELL are a melodic death metal band based out of Denmark, formed back in 2007. This is their fifth full-length record, entitled "Relics", released through Long Life Records on March 16th, 2018. It consists of 9 tracks and 41:48 minutes of music. The opening track "Black Death Redemption" sets a very intense pace at the start of this album with acute black metal riffing, blast beats galore and a few visceral and sludgier passages. The vocals are somewhere between black metal shrieking and death metal, so part SOILWORK and part ARMAGEDDON, I believe would be good analogies.

"Once Called Slaves" was made into a music video and with good reason, it shows off the violence these guys are capable of, and never really slows down, except for a few moments. It ends with sounds of fire burning. "Conqueror's Tyranny" starts off much slower, but the overall atmosphere of the song is based around epic black metal, with more traditional picking and the faster drumming is carefully integrated. "Tombworld" is pure chaos, this time there is no transition phase or lengthy introduction. This one goes straight to the point and when it slows down, it resembles AMON AMARTH or THE CROWN.  "Plague Altar" sounds like it came directly from the infernal caverns of DARK FUNERAL, it does however show some contrast with some of the cleaner sounding guitars herein. The tolling of bells and a doomy feel akin to MORGION is what we get with "Last Dawn Duet", one of my favorite tracks on the album, due to how the song progresses from doom to black metal.

"Mammon Rise" shows off something different than the other songs, some blistering and edgy solos, which are extremely well executed and go hand in hand with some of the catchier melodies and harmonies that are conjured up on the album. "Liar's Labyrinth" follows the same path, it is very apocalyptic in nature, as most of the music conveys and this us brings us right into the middle of Armageddon. The final track "World at Its End" serves as the perfect outro with acoustic guitars, rain sound effects and pounding drums. Overall, every song here has a sinister feel to it, and as the last track mentions, this is the soundtrack to the world coming to an end. It may not be pretty at times, but it is very effective.