Band Biographies: Cruentus

Cruentus was formed in Norrköping, Sweden, in 1998. Martin Öhman and Petter Bocian first started the band and shortly after Fredrik Larsson (later Karnell) joined. With influences mainly revolving around Scandinavian extreme metal bands, such as Edge of Sanity, Dissection, Entombed, At the Gates, Amorphis, and Dark Tranquillity, but also from acts like Metallica and Iron Maiden, the group had a strong musical ground to evolve from.

The first couple of years the band rehearsed a lot, recorded two demos, and played a few local shows. Shortly after this Fredrik left the band due to other commitments. Martin and Petter continued playing but not as regularly as before. It wasn’t until around 2010 they started to rehearse on a steady basis. Lots of songs were written and after some postponement the band released the first album in December of 2020.

The debut album was titled ”Night Embrace Me” and was recorded at Deathskull Studio C & D in the band’s hometown of Norrköping. Mixing and mastering was done by Magnus ”Devo” Andersson (ex-Marduk) at Endarker Studios Sweden. The album consists of 10 songs with musical elements of both death, thrash, and black metal.

”Night Embrace Me” was released on CD by Thrash Corner Records and distributed in Asia and Europe. The album was also released on cassette by the Malaysian label Qalaqas Black Art. The band received good reviews and a lot of critics saw parables in the metal scene in the 1990s, and with a background in that scene, the band took great pride in those words.

In early 2022 the band teamed up with the Austrian metal label Kvlt und Kaos Productions for the release of their second album, ”Fossilized”, which will see the light of day July 15th 2022. The recording took place at Deathskull Studio E and Tomas Skogsberg mixed the album at Sunlight Studios. Skogsberg, most famous for the legendary Stockholm Death Metal Sound (Entombed, Dismember, etc.) made no mistake in getting the best possible sound for the band’s sophomore album. The mastering of the album was done by Sverker Widgren (Diabolical) at Wing Studios. The album is a natural continuation of the debut, with the same aggressiveness and intensity, but refined to get a heavier and tighter sound. Lyrically the band expresses the different emotions coherent with being a human and the diversities of life itself and our coexistence with the present reality.

Cruentus is steadily writing new material, refining and improving their musical ability and songwriting leading to a better end result. The band has already started working on their third album and will continue evolving their music on the same path. With the same amount of aggressiveness mixed with more melodic parts. The goal is to raise the bar with each release.

Cruentus in 2022 is:

Martin Öhman guitar, bass, vocals

Petter Bocian drums, vocals