Album Review: Mental Cruelty – A Hill To Die Upon (Unique Leader)

German haunting death metal quintet Mental Cruelty return with their terrifying new album ‘A Hill To Die Upon’, released via the mighty Unique Leader on the 28th May, 2021.

Founded in 2016 in Germany, the quintet have established themselves as one of the most exciting bands on the extreme underground, touring Europe with Rings Of Saturn and Nekrogoblikon in 2019 and North America with Signs Of The Swarm and Disentomb. Now with two albums under their belts, they have become well known for their signature blackened breakdowns, blast beats, epic arrangements and slamming brutality.

Following the chilled and short intro of Avgang, a ‘mental’ flurry of epic instrumentation awaits on the following Ultima Hypocrita. A fantastic showcase of the wildly different parts that make up Mental Cruelty’s A Hill to Die Upon.

A frenzied blast of blackened death metal, the thrill of that is enhanced by epic orchestration and an absolute beastly period of guitar soloing. It’s a brilliant start but Mental Cruelty are just laying the foundations of beautiful brutality there. To build on that, Abadon gets even heavier. The slam is hard here and it almost reaches grind levels at certain stages but still with that layer of epic orchestration throughout.

It really shouldn’t work. The combination of bruising blast beats, breakdowns, tearing savagery and epic, symphonic arrangements. Yet it does and does so bloody well. If there’s one thing that can be taken away from A Hill to Die Upon, it’s that Mental Cruelty are really offering something fresh in the slam/death world.

Blazing through meaty efforts like King ov Fire, Eternal Eclipse and Death Worship as though their actual lives depended on it. No complaints here though as each is as guttural and devastating as the last. Listen in wonder while feeling like Mental Cruelty are trying to force your brain out of your ears.

The thrill remains as this beastly unit continue to spit absolute fire with the title track. Which comes off the surprising back of the mellow and peaceful intermission style offering of Fossenbrate. The beauty and sounds of nature, night falling and then Mental Cruelty produce a flamethrower to burn it all to the ground. Mission accomplished too as there’s not much left after, aside from smoking and smouldering wreckage.

That destructive imagery makes even more sense when the penultimate track reveals itself. Called Extermination Campaign, it all makes sense. We’re not supposed to get out of this alive and the ‘grandiose’ flair is the harbinger of end times. Which brings us to the end and the lengthy finale of The Left Hand Path. A finale that is blackened fury, death-infused chaos and dark melodrama rolled into one. An enormous effort that still manages to surprise on an album that is jam-packed with them.

This kind of extreme metal shouldn’t sound so grand. Mental Cruelty have done something very special here.

Mental Cruelty – A Hill to Die Upon Full Track Listing:

1. Avgang
2. Ultima Hypocrita
3. Abadon
4. King ov Fire
5. Eternal Eclipse
6. Death Worship
7. Fossenbrate
8. A Hill to Die Upon
9. Extermination Campaign
10. The Left Hand Path

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