Crematory – Inglorious Darkness (Hateful Fred)

Whew … let’s get this over with.
My history with Crematory is long, so we’ll make it reasonably short today. Regarding Oblivion, I already dedicated myself to the embarrassing appearance of the band, paired with the correspondingly empty music – and for Unbroken I made it my task to refute the arguments of unreflectedly benevolent press comments.

Now we have 2022 and Crematory are still not tired, as Inglorious Darkness proves us. I must directly admit that, instrumentally, this album turned out better than expected, but this does not mean that it can be called good. Lyrically and vocally, as usual, there is little to be done and the songwriting continues to be on the band’s own level. You can like this stumbled-together mixture of Hypocrisy and Rammstein, but you shouldn’t if you already know the aforementioned bands.

I initially dared to believe that this album was better than its predecessors, but then there were songs like “Trümmerwelten” and “Tränen der Zeit” that are nothing more than silly attempts to generate lyrical value. Granted: Some riffs can really do something, as “Zur Hölle” proves; however, they do not become whole songs by far. All in all there’s not a lot to be memorized so that it’s not even enough to get duly mad about this work, because the songs presented here simply turned out too trivial.

The last two albums, despite or perhaps because of their inferior quality, resembled a journey; arduous, without toilet paper and with horrible food, but I like to remember my experiences with it. I experienced a lot on it that would remain in my memory and become a part of me. Inglorious Darkness, however, is like a week’s work: boring, gray and quickly forgotten.

My time with Crematory is over. The band should continue quietly, but I will no longer occupy myself with their latest albums, since there is audibly no reason for it anymore. So it only remains for me to say:

Adieu, goodbye, auf Wiedersehen. Den letzten Weg müsst ihr alleine gehen.