New logo, ancient echoing sounds, and with little more than metal mayhem and Hell’s bidding on their minds Mannheim, Germany-based speed/heavy metal quartet Cruel Force return over a decade beyond their split having perfected their own vision of the pre-extreme era of heavy metal’s rising above the tide as the legions of Satanic speed metal stormed the coast as high fantasy and evil misrule took hold. ‘Dawn of the Axe‘ is a throat-gripping swipe back to the circa 1983-1985 era of spiked and leathered v-slinging heavy metal where the roots of black and death metal first passed through gates of venomous slayers and turbo-charged executioners hands, a leap back to the roots of where this band’s initial swill-soaked spark began and away from the modern black/thrash zeitgeist they’d been a part of in the early 2010’s. Their return is swift and decisive, marked by memorable shout-along songcraft and brilliant throwback production values/aesthetics that’ll have most reasonable necks snapping forth to the beat within minutes.

Cruel Force formed circa 2008 and they were on a sinister behind-the-wall hammered warpath direct into a demo tape (‘Into the Crypts…‘, 2008) which’d more-or-less hit like a rehearsal in a style which’d been militaristic in its classic (early) Destruction-esque hammer on rhythms (“Deathstrike”) and scrambling yet occasionally notable lead guitar runs, managing a sound that was obviate in its core influence but in a certain tradition where speed and black metal were true blood brothers. From the start these folks were heavy metal obsessed and not suckling at the black/thrash niche, this truly shone on their debut full-length (‘The Rise of Satanic Might‘, 2010) a record which was still tightly wound around the tradition of mid-80’s German speed/thrash metal but cued into the stomping beat of true heavy metal in the best tradition. The second LP from the band (‘Under the Sign of the Moon‘, 2011) notably took more direct influence from 80’s black metal, featured a more imposing nigh death metal vocal and still featured the d-beat skanked feeling of Teutonic thrash but a loosened hand upon the trad metal side on a few songs for the sake of heavy odes to Bathory and ‘Persecution Mania‘-era Sodom throughout. I’d loved those two records, bought the first one on a whim for the cover art, and was entirely stoked to see they were back and even more over-the-top a decade later in 2022.

Past work from the band might’ve simply rallied nearby fellow German speed/thrash and classic first wave black fiends of the last three decades but it did so while providing a prime example of -riffs- in a superior style. Suggested contemporaries back then were the underrated long standing koenigs Desaster, the always ripping (and related) Nocturnal or newer groups like Diabolic Night and Nocturnal Witch and I’ve written about Cruel Force in that realm for years now, but for this third album those associations shift back to the primitive, towards the core of inspiration for an evil speed metal sound which is ancient and true with an entirely different feeling than their first two releases.

In approach of ‘Dawn of the Axe‘ it probably makes sense to reference ‘Riders of Doom‘-era Deathrow (Deu) to begin aiming for the right ballpark though pre-‘Hell Awaits‘ German speed metal doesn’t fully line up with the personae of Cruel Force‘s sea change on this record, I’d rather point toward albums like Hallow’s Eve‘s ‘Tales of Terror‘ or Blessed Death‘s ‘Kill or Be Killed‘ where we find darker shades of ‘Show No Mercy‘ in both the guitar work and the diction of the vocalist per an exaggerated narrative, each ranting and proclaiming their cold realities in a similar way but still fundamentally rooted in late 70’s/early 80’s heavy metal movement and not too squarely the spawn of Venom-specific aggression. This is the train of thought where I’d felt ‘Dawn of the Axe‘ made its big first impression: A charismatic vocal, a smoking guitar tone, raw but more importantly some clarified production values aiming for an early speed metal buzz which feels theatric and still all about the ’83-’85 kill-era. A year ago the first single from the album, “Across the Styx“, confirmed their return and this stylistic change with some vivid clarity sounding like a cross between Kat‘s ‘Metal and Hell‘ and the echoing terror of earliest Slayer.

Just past the The Good, The Bad and the Ugly surf-in intro piece (“Azrael’s Dawn”) Cruel Force strike into it with a call to pick up your axe per the title track/opener “At the Dawn of the Axe“, rushing right to the riff and at the very least we’re somewhere past at least the fourth Metal Massacre compilation in terms of heaviness and again the cadence of the vocals hit that spoken-sung chant of Stacy Anderson in the mid-80’s with the slap and snarl hit of (again) Slayer‘s first album. There are comparable groups that’d approximated or who’d been influenced by those things nearby but that is where my mind takes me right away per nostalgia. As you’ll find soon enough with the next piece (“Night of Thunder“) Side A of this record charges through with three similar stabbing and kicking pieces in a similar mode telling three tales of macabre visions of evil’s invasion with “Death Rides the Sky” and its shouted chorus and reeling verse riffs being one of my favorite pieces on the album. It is a familiar ride if you’ve any hindsight for edgier speed metal of a certain era but this stuff is rarely done with such precision lock upon both the songwriting and aesthetic that’d been a rare treat in the post-NWOBHM era of early speed metal where mean-assed heavy metal began to push the limits of not only speed but lyrics and imagery. The crown upon this first half is of course “Devil’s Dungeon” with its driving open, dramatic mid-song break and the revving up it serves in to the final charge-and-wail out.

In terms of maintaining a serious faced analysis of the album and holding back on the sweaty speed metal urge to whip neck, sure, the first half is inspired and perfectly set but ‘Dawn of the Axe‘ would need to build up some serious substance on Side B to really carry itself beyond the threshold of a good throwback (not great one). Thankfully they’ve got somewhere to go with it as “Watchtower of Abra” b/w “Across the Styx” rides deeper into Hell, gives us some of that Eastern bloc speedball fed energy and a deeper echoing vocal for a song that’d been well chosen for the comeback of Cruel Force, an energizing speed n’ stomp piece that never gets old. Pick scraping and beast-rolling anthemic piece “Power Surge” bridges that big opening number with the similarly structured final opus “Realm of Sands” for a well-rounded Side B which ends just before they’re out of engaging ideas.

As I’d hit the final piece on ‘Dawn of the Axe‘ and soaked in the effect of the full listen it’d felt short but to the point and impactful as a stylized and inspired return for a band that’d previously left a very different residue. This was engaging, if not repetitive and supremely focused work that brought back the many brilliancies that’d attracted me to speed/thrash metal in the first place and yet I’d have to grapple with the sensation that this was a ‘retro’ record in some clear aspect. We could spin that a bit and simply call it a true heavy metal showing, a stab at the fiery mania of early extremes, but the appeal would ultimately lie in the observation that these folks are still providing a sublime, exemplar vision of a well-established traditional heavy metal sub-sect having traveled back in time and landed somewhere here (on the worst timeline) to get it right. What matters for my taste is the Cruel Force have indeed gotten it right and entertained the shit out of me with this third record, managing cool-ass gear between the charged ancient sound design and a memorable cover art which I’ll not tire of anytime soon. A high recommendation.

https://cruelforce.bandcamp.com/album/dawn-of-the-axe?label=2976422226&tab=music

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