Crucifixion: Complete Excess

Description

From the Ludwigshafen region came one of the first death thrash bands from the area, and it became a breeding ground for musicians who are now active in successful bands, albeit of a different style. However, you do not need to be a fan of Crematory, Mystic Circle or Blood to like Excess (later: Malignity), or even find them fascinating, but their traditional roots are clearly evident. Excess was founded in the summer of 1988 and shortly afterward the first line-up formed with Harald Heine (bass, vocals), Thorsten "Smog" Aschenbrenner (guitar) and Markus Jüllich (drums). They shared a beer-stinking rehearsal room with the local thrash band Sudden Darkness, whose material was also released on Golden Core via a double CD a few months ago. The guitarist of that band recorded Excess's first demo "Torment Of Death" with limited means, but at least already on multitrack, which sounds surprisingly good for the circumstances. Many black metal bands of the 90s would have liked to have had that sound on their album. Of course, the technical skills of the three musicians were still very limited, but it is this "forced primitiveness" that makes these five tracks so authentic, but also brutal. You cannot plan or consciously create this aesthetic. The most famous and certainly most popular demo opens the CD: "Crucifixion" from 1992. Reinforced by singer Clausi (later active in the band Blood) and with a change on drums, they delivered a real quantum leap, but without leaving behind the simply preserved mix of death, thrash and, in places, doom. Guido Holzmann's production (Economist, Mystic Circle, Graveworm, etc.), whose studio was still under construction in 1992, is still an incredible, yet transparent "Wall Of Sound" to this day, and remains unmatched. The name change to Malignity was followed by the last demo before three of the four musicians joined better-known bands, with which they serve scenes different from those with which they started as Excess/Malignity. Nevertheless, everyone involved agreed to this reissue and supports the work on it. Thus, a gap in the history of German death thrash can now be filled.