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1.  De Ventus Mahemium
2.  Infernal Winds
3.  Black Witch of Doom
4.  Obscure Evil
5.  Under the Sign of the Moon
6.  Chants of Mayhem
7.  The Return of the Darkness and Evil
8.  Black Oath of Death
9.  Ancient Black Spirit
10.  The Gallows Prayer

Total playing time:  42:56

Release Date: June, 2011
Label: Heavy Forces Records

Cruel Force - Under the Sign of the Moon

Reviewer: Chris

January 12, 2012

In the tradition of German thrash metal there is a long and very difficult path to take. After all, who can top Sodom, Kreator, Tankard or Destruction in thrash metal from Deutschland? Many have tried, few have come close and no one has made a mark as indelible as the true Big Four of thrash. That said it is no less fun to hear these German bands try and pay even a distant homage to their founding fathers. Cruel Force tries to keep the thrash movement vital for the modern day by adding some black elements to the music on Under the Sign of the Moon.

When I popped this in for a first go-round the first thing that hit me was the incredibly strict Motorhead sound throughout, particularly in “Black Witch of Doom”. For me this is fine (and I’m sure I’ll catch hell for this) because someone needs to go back to the old Motorhead sound since Lemmy and company seem to be on constant repeat these days. I like the rawness, the energetic slop that makes up that familiar ugly sound. That’s not to say that Cruel Force is sloppy per se (they actually do have decent structure all around), but there’s a primitive Venom/Motorhead/early Sodom sound that is just so easy to find comfort in these days. The black-thrash thing seems to be dying out a bit before every idiot and his uncle found it and tried infiltrating it with bastardized intent, but Cruel Force takes it and makes it enjoyable and interesting. Granted, I’d be completely remiss if I said this album was a perfect foray into the medium; it’s far from polished, musically or in production, it’s housing a filthy sound, and it appeals to a select breed of fan. However, if your mind is geared towards the brashness and primitive power of such old school garage sounding thrash you’re right at home.

This album holds a myriad of speeds and styles all neatly packaged inside the thrash tag. There’s some crawling musical pathways (“Chants of Mayhem”) that lead right into mayhem that call upon Celtic Frost or Razor, and then there are all-out assaults on the mental being ala “Infernal Winds” that are both interesting and passable with a respectable grade. This is 1980’s thrash metal in its basest form, sure, but if you expect nothing but pure entertainment and don’t need to be challenged past your current level of consciousness then I see no viable reasoning for you not to find Cruel Force’s latest opus a decent addition to your collection.

The vocals constitute your typical low harsh bellowing that fits fine and is a nice change from the already-decomposing screeching and screaming associated with anything ‘black’. The band creates a collective of ancient thrash sounds with some modern add-ons that do a fine job of holding my interest, a long-time fan of the first wave of thrash who watched it happen right before my young and impressionable eyes. As I said, this is as basic as it gets, but in that statement lay my complimentary feeling that Cruel Force will not rewrite or even warrant mention in the same breath as the German founders before them, but with tracks like “Under the Sign of the Moon”, which keeps a slower pace of heavy power chords and breathy warnings of possession and calling out the underworld demons through ritualistic design, the band will do just fine with its current even plateau.