Khthoniik Cerviiks – SeroLogiikal Scars (Vertex of Dementiia) CD
Khthoniik Cerviiks – 'SeroLogiikal Scars (Vertex of Dementiia)' CD
2015 album from the Germany hive of brutality. The alternately swinging/marching mantra that tensely opens the album bespeaks a confidence and maturity that often takes years to harvest, if it does at all; from there, the vortex opens wider until a windswept rush ushers in your spiritual demise. The band's basis in the bestial arts is still very much intact here, but their barbarity has taken on new, even-more-twisted shapes, with textures daubed in alien strains of blood and madness narrowed down into an almost logical formula. Ever restless but ever in control, KHTHONIIK CERVIIKS shift gears as insanely as their hive mind moves, but have likewise harnessed the power of simmering tension, tectonic despite the daring increase in melodicism, making those vortexes more alluring but also more fatal. It's a payoff that shouldn't work, but it does - eerily, hypnotically, majestically - no doubt enabled by the suprisingly clear, concise production that sacrifices no amount of power nor punch.
