More than a great many Death Metal bands I've listened to recently, Dutch group CROMM CRUAC has a fantastic groove. The tightness and bounce of the heavy riffs are combined with the growled vocals to create an energetic and refreshing album which can be listened to over and over. This release is, in fact a re-issue of the group's debut demo album from 1998; including early versions of the songs. The cleaned up and remastered sound of the album keeps it fresh, with the balances between the instruments kept level (the drums aren't overpowering everything like many Death Metal productions seem to).

Opening with the groovy, rocky feel of "A Passed Moment", immediately it becomes apparent what this band is all about. The 6.33 riff-fest mixes Progressive and experimental elements with aspects of Death and Thrash Metal. Following on, "Human Instinct" is a mid-tempo track before "Behind My Eyes" builds the speed and aggression back up again with a tasty Thrash riff. I could continue in this vein, but a list of all the songs on the album and trying to describe them will get repetitive very quickly. All 13 tracks on "Senecio" are interesting and have stood up to the 17 years that they have been around. "The Corner" in particular includes some interesting and inventive guitar lines and riffs which utilise unusual tonalities and chromatics, as well as playing with the feel and timing of the track in order to break it up a bit.

Overall, this reissue is a great release from this little-known troupe of Dutch metallers, making use of plenty of influences- from Thrash and Death Metal to more Progressive and Experimental subgenres- "Senecio" is an album which could easily have been released today, and stands up to many younger bands.