Album Review: Profanatica – Crux Simplex (Season of Mist Underground Activists)

Profanatica, the black metal heathens from the US have been purveyors of primeval blasphemy for nigh on thirty-three years. On September 22nd, 2023, they unleash their latest album ‘Crux Simplex’, via Season of Mist Underground Activists.

With blackened hearts, blackened minds, and blackened souls, Profanatica emerge from dark pits with a brand-new album of hellacious and harsh metal. Where the goal isn’t to reinvent the wheel, but to soak it in fuel and set fire to it.

As sacrilegious as always, the Profanatica flame is burning brightly on Crux Simplex. The filthy and focused savagery on full display with the hammering horror of Condemned to Unholy Death and Take Up the Cross. It’s a relentless attack, dark and devious, twisting minds and turning stomachs.

Chaotic and cavernous, The First Fall’s garish guitar/drum combo is made all the more horrifying thanks to the demonic vocals. Then there is Meeting of a Whore, a track with pounding drumbeats and throaty roars. Before Compelled by Romans takes the album up to the halfway point with a masticating display of blackened noise. Be under no false illusions, Profanatica are fully committed to sounding as harsh and horrible as possible.

How else can you explain a track like Wipe the Fucking Face of Jesus? A little over two minutes of manic speed and utter chaos. Or the grinding and gnashing brutality of The Second Fall? It really doesn’t get any less complex than this. Profanatica face-ripping efforts will have a lot of success.

Further proof coming in the form of the fetid nastiness of Cunts of Jerusalem, the destructive delightfulness of The Third Fall, and the extensive, elaborate black metal massacre that is Division of Robes.

Profanatica – Crux Simplex Track Listing:

1. Condemned to Unholy Death
2. Take Up the Cross
3. The First Fall
4. Meeting of a Whore
5. Compelled by Romans
6. Wipe the Fucking Face of Jesus
7. The Second Fall
8. Cunts of Jerusalem
9. The Third Fall
10. Division of Robes

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