Label: Godz ov War Productions
Release date: January 31st, 2025
We stay in Central Europe, just like I promised in a previous review, but this is everything that’s common for Scrüda and Surgical Invasion. And I even don’t mean Scrüda comes from Poland and not Ukraine. This is first of all about the music both ensembles play. Residents of Gdansk, as most of you guessed after looking at the logo, are most into Black Art. Well, in my opinion this is about image and lyrics. And the first genre of music you probably think about, even before you start to listen to “Fury…”, due to length of tracks (ten of them takes eighteen minutes and eight seconds), has not too much to do with metal. I mean, purely evolutional issues, what kind of music grindcore evolved from. And let’s be honest, this is a very accurate association. So, to make a long story short, guys serve to us specific mix of black metal played by, to mention the most well-known ensemble who plays like that, creators of Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz and grindcore, where they absolutely don’t fuck around, don’t play in any show of skills to play their instruments, some sophisticated structure of tracks and take no fucking prisoners at all!
This is the shortest and, in my opinion, the best description of Scrüda’s creativity. I can also hear some other influences on “Fury Among Ruins”. Somehow, I hear some delicate but anyway touches of death here and there, also a little bit thrash/speed. Vocalizations aren’t something that you expect from black metal horde, surely. Personally, I associate it with old-school grindcore or crust punk. That’s why some American band created in 1993 in Woburn, Massachusetts crossed my mind when I listened to the debut full-length of Scrüda. There are some quite huge differences and only as deaf as a stone can’t hear them, but in general that’s what our metal brothers from Gdansk play. The main difference is just the vocals. The Conqueror and Firecracker don’t use pure growling at all. That’s not a clean voice, in the least, but it’s still much closer to crust punk. Well, the songs’ structure is also like that, I guess. That’s the reason I wonder if I shouldn’t put terms I used before the opposite. There’s for sure some dark atmosphere and fury emanating from this creativity, but in purely music meaning it has more to do with genre represented by for example English ensemble created 1985 in Ipswich whose debut album is “Holocaust in Your Head”.
It happens quite a lot in this music – from a purely technical side. As I wrote before, that’s nothing complicated, so you can’t expect some developed riffs or passages. But at the same time, you’ll not be bored of this playing. I mean, guys of course first of all smash your face and everything else, but if you survive it somehow, then you hear more than musical meat grinder. I know not everyone likes such playing, even if you are a sworn fan of extreme sounds, but today time gives you the opportunity to check out music before you decide to buy it. And I wholeheartedly recommend you do so! Then you can make a choice of the copy you wish to own. Godz of War Productions offers it both as a digital one and on CD. But if you’d like to have it as a cassette – still no problem. I mean, Sign of Evil Productions released it as a limited edition on this medium. All premiers took place January 31st, so even cassettes should be still available, I think. What else to write? I guess it’s everything that you need to know.
Oh… It seems I forgot to write something quite important. That’s the fact Scrüda was born in 2021, but two of three members of the ensemble have longer experience. They played several kinds of metal before, by the way. And that’s, as I wrote before, possible to recognize while listening to “Fury…”
