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

Review by Carl on November 26, 2025.

It has taken them some five years, but it's finally here: Caustic Wound's second full-length album. Spoiler alert: it was well worth the wait!

As on their first offering to the world back in 2020, the band delivers another acidic blob of grinding death metal mayhem. If you'd drop Rotten Sound, Incantation and Terrorizer in a blender, with a pretty generous scoop of Repulsion and a puff of Nails added, the end result would most probably sound very close to what Caustic Wound has to offer us mere mortals. Throughout a selection of short, aggressive and certainly heavy songs, the band is firing on all cylinders, belting out a vicious concoction of blasting grindcore velocity, squirming death metal riffing, shredding leads that would not sound out of place on a Morbid Angel album, as well as calculated doses of crawling heaviness. The music is doused in a heavy-ass layer of downtuned distortion, making the mixture sound simply crushing, yet without everything deteriorating into an impenetrable mush. A lot of attention has gone into the short and pointy tracks, which are brought with a punk-ish energy and heaps of conviction, delivering hooks aplenty. At their slowest, the band gives off a vibe reminiscent of Incantation at their most morose, with the more crushing side of Godflesh also having left some bloody marks in Caustic Wound's sound, something that works very well with both the heavy guitar sound and speedy sections on offer. This is some seriously ripping stuff, absolutely executed to the nines, something which helps to alleviate the fact that the rough and low roaring vocals tend to get somewhat monotonous towards the end. Admittedly, this is a minor critique, one that's easily swept under the rug by a total and relentless battering of an album too, but hey, a nerd like me needs something to bitch about, right?

That a band like this needs a fitting production shouldn't even be mentioned, and on this point, this album delivers as well, because this sound mix makes the music offered land like a brick in the face. It's clear as crystal without losing that raw edge needed for this type of stuff, while ensuring that the heavy guitars simply roar throughout the runtime of this album. The clearly audible presence of the bulldozing bass in the mix is more than welcome, adding even more crushing density to an already punishing production job. There are oodles of death metal bands out there that would sell an organ for a sound like this, I'm sure.

With this second offering, Caustic Wound successfully continues down the path they started on their debut (and most probably earlier than that), breaking bones, snapping necks and splitting heads all along the way, proving that savage grinding death is still a force to be reckoned with. At the time of writing, 2025 is not even halfway, but I'm getting this itchy feeling that I may have already found my album of the year.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Review by Carl on November 26, 2025.

It has taken them some five years, but it's finally here: Caustic Wound's second full-length album. Spoiler alert: it was well worth the wait!

As on their first offering to the world back in 2020, the band delivers another acidic blob of grinding death metal mayhem. If you'd drop Rotten Sound, Incantation and Terrorizer in a blender, with a pretty generous scoop of Repulsion and a puff of Nails added, the end result would most probably sound very close to what Caustic Wound has to offer us mere mortals. Throughout a selection of short, aggressive and certainly heavy songs, the band is firing on all cylinders, belting out a vicious concoction of blasting grindcore velocity, squirming death metal riffing, shredding leads that would not sound out of place on a Morbid Angel album, as well as calculated doses of crawling heaviness. The music is doused in a heavy-ass layer of downtuned distortion, making the mixture sound simply crushing, yet without everything deteriorating into an impenetrable mush. A lot of attention has gone into the short and pointy tracks, which are brought with a punk-ish energy and heaps of conviction, delivering hooks aplenty. At their slowest, the band gives off a vibe reminiscent of Incantation at their most morose, with the more crushing side of Godflesh also having left some bloody marks in Caustic Wound's sound, something that works very well with both the heavy guitar sound and speedy sections on offer. This is some seriously ripping stuff, absolutely executed to the nines, something which helps to alleviate the fact that the rough and low roaring vocals tend to get somewhat monotonous towards the end. Admittedly, this is a minor critique, one that's easily swept under the rug by a total and relentless battering of an album too, but hey, a nerd like me needs something to bitch about, right?

That a band like this needs a fitting production shouldn't even be mentioned, and on this point, this album delivers as well, because this sound mix makes the music offered land like a brick in the face. It's clear as crystal without losing that raw edge needed for this type of stuff, while ensuring that the heavy guitars simply roar throughout the runtime of this album. The clearly audible presence of the bulldozing bass in the mix is more than welcome, adding even more crushing density to an already punishing production job. There are oodles of death metal bands out there that would sell an organ for a sound like this, I'm sure.

With this second offering, Caustic Wound successfully continues down the path they started on their debut (and most probably earlier than that), breaking bones, snapping necks and splitting heads all along the way, proving that savage grinding death is still a force to be reckoned with. At the time of writing, 2025 is not even halfway, but I'm getting this itchy feeling that I may have already found my album of the year.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Review by Carl on November 26, 2025.

It has taken them some five years, but it's finally here: Caustic Wound's second full-length album. Spoiler alert: it was well worth the wait!

As on their first offering to the world back in 2020, the band delivers another acidic blob of grinding death metal mayhem. If you'd drop Rotten Sound, Incantation and Terrorizer in a blender, with a pretty generous scoop of Repulsion and a puff of Nails added, the end result would most probably sound very close to what Caustic Wound has to offer us mere mortals. Throughout a selection of short, aggressive and certainly heavy songs, the band is firing on all cylinders, belting out a vicious concoction of blasting grindcore velocity, squirming death metal riffing, shredding leads that would not sound out of place on a Morbid Angel album, as well as calculated doses of crawling heaviness. The music is doused in a heavy-ass layer of downtuned distortion, making the mixture sound simply crushing, yet without everything deteriorating into an impenetrable mush. A lot of attention has gone into the short and pointy tracks, which are brought with a punk-ish energy and heaps of conviction, delivering hooks aplenty. At their slowest, the band gives off a vibe reminiscent of Incantation at their most morose, with the more crushing side of Godflesh also having left some bloody marks in Caustic Wound's sound, something that works very well with both the heavy guitar sound and speedy sections on offer. This is some seriously ripping stuff, absolutely executed to the nines, something which helps to alleviate the fact that the rough and low roaring vocals tend to get somewhat monotonous towards the end. Admittedly, this is a minor critique, one that's easily swept under the rug by a total and relentless battering of an album too, but hey, a nerd like me needs something to bitch about, right?

That a band like this needs a fitting production shouldn't even be mentioned, and on this point, this album delivers as well, because this sound mix makes the music offered land like a brick in the face. It's clear as crystal without losing that raw edge needed for this type of stuff, while ensuring that the heavy guitars simply roar throughout the runtime of this album. The clearly audible presence of the bulldozing bass in the mix is more than welcome, adding even more crushing density to an already punishing production job. There are oodles of death metal bands out there that would sell an organ for a sound like this, I'm sure.

With this second offering, Caustic Wound successfully continues down the path they started on their debut (and most probably earlier than that), breaking bones, snapping necks and splitting heads all along the way, proving that savage grinding death is still a force to be reckoned with. At the time of writing, 2025 is not even halfway, but I'm getting this itchy feeling that I may have already found my album of the year.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Review by Carl on November 26, 2025.

It has taken them some five years, but it's finally here: Caustic Wound's second full-length album. Spoiler alert: it was well worth the wait!

As on their first offering to the world back in 2020, the band delivers another acidic blob of grinding death metal mayhem. If you'd drop Rotten Sound, Incantation and Terrorizer in a blender, with a pretty generous scoop of Repulsion and a puff of Nails added, the end result would most probably sound very close to what Caustic Wound has to offer us mere mortals. Throughout a selection of short, aggressive and certainly heavy songs, the band is firing on all cylinders, belting out a vicious concoction of blasting grindcore velocity, squirming death metal riffing, shredding leads that would not sound out of place on a Morbid Angel album, as well as calculated doses of crawling heaviness. The music is doused in a heavy-ass layer of downtuned distortion, making the mixture sound simply crushing, yet without everything deteriorating into an impenetrable mush. A lot of attention has gone into the short and pointy tracks, which are brought with a punk-ish energy and heaps of conviction, delivering hooks aplenty. At their slowest, the band gives off a vibe reminiscent of Incantation at their most morose, with the more crushing side of Godflesh also having left some bloody marks in Caustic Wound's sound, something that works very well with both the heavy guitar sound and speedy sections on offer. This is some seriously ripping stuff, absolutely executed to the nines, something which helps to alleviate the fact that the rough and low roaring vocals tend to get somewhat monotonous towards the end. Admittedly, this is a minor critique, one that's easily swept under the rug by a total and relentless battering of an album too, but hey, a nerd like me needs something to bitch about, right?

That a band like this needs a fitting production shouldn't even be mentioned, and on this point, this album delivers as well, because this sound mix makes the music offered land like a brick in the face. It's clear as crystal without losing that raw edge needed for this type of stuff, while ensuring that the heavy guitars simply roar throughout the runtime of this album. The clearly audible presence of the bulldozing bass in the mix is more than welcome, adding even more crushing density to an already punishing production job. There are oodles of death metal bands out there that would sell an organ for a sound like this, I'm sure.

With this second offering, Caustic Wound successfully continues down the path they started on their debut (and most probably earlier than that), breaking bones, snapping necks and splitting heads all along the way, proving that savage grinding death is still a force to be reckoned with. At the time of writing, 2025 is not even halfway, but I'm getting this itchy feeling that I may have already found my album of the year.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Review by Carl on November 26, 2025.

It has taken them some five years, but it's finally here: Caustic Wound's second full-length album. Spoiler alert: it was well worth the wait!

As on their first offering to the world back in 2020, the band delivers another acidic blob of grinding death metal mayhem. If you'd drop Rotten Sound, Incantation and Terrorizer in a blender, with a pretty generous scoop of Repulsion and a puff of Nails added, the end result would most probably sound very close to what Caustic Wound has to offer us mere mortals. Throughout a selection of short, aggressive and certainly heavy songs, the band is firing on all cylinders, belting out a vicious concoction of blasting grindcore velocity, squirming death metal riffing, shredding leads that would not sound out of place on a Morbid Angel album, as well as calculated doses of crawling heaviness. The music is doused in a heavy-ass layer of downtuned distortion, making the mixture sound simply crushing, yet without everything deteriorating into an impenetrable mush. A lot of attention has gone into the short and pointy tracks, which are brought with a punk-ish energy and heaps of conviction, delivering hooks aplenty. At their slowest, the band gives off a vibe reminiscent of Incantation at their most morose, with the more crushing side of Godflesh also having left some bloody marks in Caustic Wound's sound, something that works very well with both the heavy guitar sound and speedy sections on offer. This is some seriously ripping stuff, absolutely executed to the nines, something which helps to alleviate the fact that the rough and low roaring vocals tend to get somewhat monotonous towards the end. Admittedly, this is a minor critique, one that's easily swept under the rug by a total and relentless battering of an album too, but hey, a nerd like me needs something to bitch about, right?

That a band like this needs a fitting production shouldn't even be mentioned, and on this point, this album delivers as well, because this sound mix makes the music offered land like a brick in the face. It's clear as crystal without losing that raw edge needed for this type of stuff, while ensuring that the heavy guitars simply roar throughout the runtime of this album. The clearly audible presence of the bulldozing bass in the mix is more than welcome, adding even more crushing density to an already punishing production job. There are oodles of death metal bands out there that would sell an organ for a sound like this, I'm sure.

With this second offering, Caustic Wound successfully continues down the path they started on their debut (and most probably earlier than that), breaking bones, snapping necks and splitting heads all along the way, proving that savage grinding death is still a force to be reckoned with. At the time of writing, 2025 is not even halfway, but I'm getting this itchy feeling that I may have already found my album of the year.

Rating: 9 out of 10