Out at the forefront of the old-school death metal revival, Hells Headbangers has dropped a very cool, very heavy slab of subterranean death that showcases one new song each from the British crypt-crawlers Cruciamentum and American crushers Vasaeleth, both staunch disciples of the Incantation/Immolation school of murky, evil death metal. It's presented in a gorgeous glossy gatefold jacket and pressed on purple/black colored vinyl. Might be on the short side with just two songs in total, but it looks fucking fantastic.

I've really gotten into Vasaeleth after hearing their Crypt Born album from last year, but Cruciamentum actually ends up stealing the show for me on the 7". The band rides into "Rites To The Abduction Of Essence" on a wave of minimal black drift, then kicks into a killer cavernous death metal assault. Pummeling, reverb-soaked thrashing shifts into slower doomed heaviness throughout the song, the vocalist belting out the the sound laced with creepy melodies and tasteful (ie minimal) backing synths and soundtracky female choirs that add a regal black majesty to their shambling, rotting death metal. I love the way that Cruciamentum combines that majestic ambience with crushing death metal, and when they head into the soaring blackened deathdoom at the end and those choirs come in, it sounds killer.

Vasaeleth deliver another cacophonous, contorted death blast with their "Profane Ceremonial Exudation", and fans of their Profound Lore debut Crypt Born & Tethered To Ruin are no doubt drooling to hear it. It's in the same vein as the album, barbaric cavernous death metal with a strong undercurrent of doom that pops up when the band lurches into one of their many crawling glacial riffs and onslaughts of bulldozing double bass, with loads of weird dissonant chords and riffs that betray the Incantation influence. It's another killer dose of doom-laden occult death from these guys. Great stuff.