Crematory – Destination – Album Review
19th April 2025I first encountered Crematory during their Believe era in the early ’00s, back when goth clubs weren’t just places to show off your best corpse-chic look and had something resembling substance. This is back when the band offered an antidote to nu-metal’s juvenile tantrums. Listening to Destination now isn’t like revisiting an old friend. It’s more like running into that same friend who’s still slouched in a corner, nursing their wounds, but somehow seems less convincing in their sorrow.
From the start, it’s clear that Crematory hasn’t suddenly rediscovered joy. The album is a polished version of that old gothic machinery. The drums thud with enough mechanical precision to make you wonder if they were recorded in a factory basement, just for that extra grimy texture. The synths push the melody forward with the subtlety of a haunting. It’s all familiar, like a leather-bound journal you know you’ll never read again but feel compelled to keep on the shelf, and the guitars grind with an ominous rhythm, their distortion straining to break through the weight of the darkness around them.
The voice of Felix Stass continues to sound like a man who’s been rehearsing his own eulogy. His voice is now a ghost of itself, too tired to be dramatic but still unwilling to let go. It’s the kind of voice that could make even a love song about a dead girlfriend sound like the closing credits of a bad 90s horror movie.
This pattern of balancing absurdity with weight continues through most of the record. Deep In The Silence is a prime example—beginning as a slow, brooding ballad before blossoming into something almost operatic. It’s a finely tuned drama, not a melodramatic outburst.Crematory has never been interested in chasing any fleeting trends, and they’re not about to rewrite their rules either. Instead, they just keep pumping out what they know best and with an ever-present sense of “I’ve been here before, but let’s see if we can make it even darker.”
What makes Crematory stand out is their refusal to choose sides. While many of their contemporaries have either abandoned their industrial past for something more electronic or returned to traditional, pure gothic roots, Crematory simply doesn’t care. It’s not about relevance; it’s about commitment to something long past fashion’s expiration date.
For those who’ve lived through this scene, Destination is both a reaffirmation and a subtle declaration of defiance. It doesn’t want to win you over with glossy new tricks or desperate reinvention. It just wants you to understand that it’s still here, existing in the same shadow it always has.
Destination isn’t going to make anyone’s “Best of” list, but maybe that’s the point. It’s a record for those of us who understand that not every band needs to reinvent the wheel or even move the car for that matter. Sometimes, just sitting in the back seat with the windows rolled up is enough. Crematory holds on to the absurdity of their own melancholia—unabashed, unfashionable, and perfectly content to let the darkness swallow them whole.
Score 6/10
Track List
1. Destination
2. The Future Is a Lonely Place
3. Welt aus Glass
4. My Girlfriend’s Girlfriend (Type O Negative cover)
5. After Isolation
6. My Own Private God
7. Days Without Sun
8. Deep in the Silence
9. Banished Forever
10. Ashes of Despair
11. Toxic Touch
12. Das letzte Ticket
Label – ROAR
Release – 2nd May 2025
