An Intact Identity Despite Terrible Clean Vocals - A Review of Crematory's Inglorious Darkness

Influential gothic metal quintet Crematory has been going through a few challenges throughout the past few years, including several label changes, a revolving door of bassists, clean vocalists and guitarists and subpar album, concert ticket and single sales. The most notable element to stress when reviewing Inglorious Darkness is that Gerhard Felix Stass now needs to perform both harsh and clean vocals. While he still fully convinces in the former department, he struggles much in the latter category. That element is also this record's greatest flaw since his uncomfortable, spoken and lifeless vocal deliveries are an acquired taste and take much time to at least get used to.

Once one can get past those poor clean vocal deliveries, this album comes around as an average record in Crematory's vast discography. Atmospheric, danceable and melodic keyboard sounds meet heavily chugging guitar riffs, serviceable bass guitar sounds, decently tight drums and gloomy lyrical topics in English and German. This record won't get Crematory a whole lot of new fans but most seasoned supporters will still come along. The self-produced effort sounds authentic and really defines what Crematory stands for.

Highlights are atmospheric opener and title track "Inglorious Darkness" that kicks the record off with much oomph, musically gloomy and lyrically intriguing deep cut "Trümmerwelten" and desperate yet catchy surprise "Not for the Innocent" hidden deep in the record's second half. Fans finally get a German version of band classic "Tears of Time" that is entitled "Tränen der Zeit" and while most bands fail to recapture the magic of yore such as parody group Manowar, Crematory delivers the goods as if the last twenty-seven years hadn't even been happening. The quintet deserves much respect for keeping its identity together despite the aforementioned challenges.

I wouldn't recommend purchasing the boxed set of this album even though I have been purchasing all boxed set from Klagebilder all the way up to Antiserum. The boxed set of Inglorious Darkness is very expensive, only includes three additional new songs and two unnecessary remixes for a tame running time of twenty-one minutes as well as a belt buckle, another flag and a few guitar picks. The band should look at the contents and prices of its former boxed sets if it aims to sell more merchandise.

At the end of the day, Inglorious Darkness is an average Crematory release that should appeal to fans of melodic gothic and industrial metal. The record's greatest strength is that the band has managed to keep its unique identity intact despite numerous challenges. The album's biggest downside are the clean vocals that are performed very poorly by Gerhard Felix Stass. The band should aim to get a new clean vocalist on board. Many fans actually hope for the return of Matthias "Matze" Hechler after an absence of a decade. To keep it short, seasoned fans of the band should dig Inglorious Darkness but this new record won't get the band too many new supporters since its trademarks are still stuck in the late nineties of the last millennium.

Final Rating: 70%