The rather lesser known thrash metal scene in The Netherlands has gotten a new face. Cthulhu is a young band from Lelystad, Flevoland and they produce a very unique type of thrash metal which shares a 50/50 percentage with heavy metal. It is Cthulhu their very first release and needless to say it is a banger.

 

The sound quality is very good for what ‘Cremator Of The Sky’ is. Being unsigned and their first release, the quality is very good and well produced. ‘Cremator Of The Sky’ is at least to say very creative and ferocious. The album starts right off with an old school thrash metal riff introducing the instrumental track ‘Aggressor’. It is a very good indication of what you can expect with the rest of the album. Except for the vocals of course.

 

The vocals are a thing to get used to if you don’t listen to a lot of heavy metal. The vocals do remind me a lot of the style of King Diamond and maybe a little bit of Rob Halford. So the high vocals do remind me a lot of King Diamond especially the high notes. What surprised me a lot, is by looking at a live video of Cthulhu, is that the vocalist plays guitar at the same time. Normally that isn’t quite a shocker however with these types of vocals, you don’t see that all too often. 

 

Besides the vocals, you do have a lot more that needs to be talked about. Well it isn’t your typical thrash metal/heavy metal album where you constantly hear the singers vocals. No, ‘Cremator Of The Sky’ really put the emphasis on the instruments. At least, that is what I think. Nowadays you don’t hear such an album anymore, which is a pity because there are a lot of talented bassists/guitarists/drummers around. You can hear the raw talent of these guys on ‘Cremator Of The Sky’. 

 

With all that talent in the spotlight, you would think it will quickly turn in a ‘Look-at-us-being-a-show-off-band’. That absolutely isn’t the case with Cthulhu. Cthulhu really shows off (in a good way) of what they are capable of doing with the thrash/heavy metal genre. It is cool to see such a ‘fresh’ take on Dutch thrash/heavy metal. The Dutch scene really needed that. So overall, this release is a surprising one. You have to get used to certain elements during the cd but when you do, you will be in for a heavy thrashy goodness.