Review by Vladimir on January 28, 2024.

Well damn, I guess I stumbled upon the very gates of the underworld, from which I descended deep into the bowels of hell, where I was awaited by Diablo himself. Join me on this godforsaken journey, as I take a look at the Spanish black metal band Cryfemal, with their ninth full-length album La Gran Victoria Del Mal, released on October 20th, 2023 via Immortal Frost Productions.

Cryfemal provides a very misanthropic, destructive and purely antichristian black metal that rips the flesh with tremolo picking riffs on a 7 string guitar in lower tuning, blast beats and maniacal screaming harsh vocals with growling backing vocals. From start to finish, this album is dominated by songs which sound downright brutal with the given instrumental work, being borderline death metal at times, especially with the lower tuning making it sound much more deviant and insane. A personal highlight of mine might be the sixth track 'Noctambulismo' which I liked particularly for its riff work, brief mid-tempo drumming and overall flow, however I also really dig the seventh track 'Despide El Ser' for its particularly apocalyptic vibe taken to the very extreme.

This album has a very straightforward and simplistic songwriting, which gives it a sense of stylistic consistency from one track to another. The decision of black metal to be played on 7 string guitars is often a risky one, as it often ends up sounding very muddy or just highly off putting at times, however in this case it doesn't actually feel like it strays off its path, despite the fact that I am still not used to black metal music in lower tunings or even 7 string guitars. If anything, the lower tuning and 7 string guitars contribute by making the songs even sharper around the edges, while also creating a different form of diabolic and satanic atmosphere that is both unique and unusual. Some people might feel like they are listening to something which could be summarized as "what if the famed Doom and Doom Eternal composer Mick Gordon wrote a black metal album", and I won't lie to you because I did feel so from time to time. What really compliments the riff and drum work on this album is the maniacal screaming vocals that feel both painful and frightening at the same time, that succeed by making this album sound like one torture machine from the depths of hell. The sound production of this album has a very highly distorted guitar tone that can often sound a bit muddy and unclean, especially since we're talking about a downtuned black metal album, however the drums and vocals seem to be much better balanced than the guitars.

Although I found this album to be rather unusual and a bit unorthodox for something that belongs in the black metal branch, I actually liked it a lot. It is a very primitive and insane album from start to finish, which has plenty of sick and brutal material that makes it sound like one hell of a demonic serenade. The overall output weirded me out at first, but as I followed along, I seemed to have started enjoying it midway through, which I think could be equivalent to my experience when I first tried out dark chocolate with berries. If you ever stumble upon this album, don't hesitate to check it out, I am sure you will find it very delightful.

Rating: 8.3 out of 10