They say you’re a different person every seven years. That’s how long it takes for every cell in your body to slowly get replaced by a new batch, rendering you a new fellow, hopefully wiser and better than the one you were before. By such metrics, Cranial Osteotomy are a new band twice over, emerging from the mountains of Russia with their second offering, Vortex of the Dark Knowledge, a whopping fifteen years after their debut. Brutal death has had a lot of growth in those years, where the slams got hammier, the jams got whammier, and the sanity of listeners everywhere grew more defeated. Have the last fifteen years given Cranial Osteotomy the knowledge they need to compete?

Vortex of the Dark Knowledge comes with a sound that sounds modernized, for better and worse.¹ Vocalist/guitarist Vlad carries a moist, guttural register between Devourment and Symphobia, and manages to make his syllables serve the riffs instead of vomiting mindlessly over the tracks. Drummer Vlad Melnik has a good flair for triplet and quintuplet-heavy fills, using a more jazzy, perpetually changing approach to rhythm making, especially with his snare, not relying on sixteenth-note straightforward monotony. Bassist Vitaly Sturk, while never quite showcased beyond a few all-too-brief fills, is given enough room in the cramped mix to bolster the collection of grooves and slams present. Despite a fairly brickwalled master, there’s been enough care put into the mix to ensure it sounds somewhat thick and chunky to justify the writing style, with a decent amount of articulation being given to the drum kit.

At their peak, Cranial Osteotomy know how to fling some absolutely savage snapshots of brutality. “Structures of Decadence² Impurity” features the stankiest snare-to-rimshot accent before dropping into a halftime slam while Vlad changes his beats with the creativity of Gigan. Riff structures yeet the listener hither and dither, using Decrepit Birth’s …And Time Begins approach to stitching the moments together, but actual measures feature a Putridity meets Visceral Disgorge styling. “Obscenity Aeon” channels vintage Suffocation through staccato-laced chugs, while “Dripping into Sombre³ Quagmire” toys with arpeggio leads which consistently descend into Abysmal Dawn-styled chugs. Multiple cuts come with a mean slam or foul bop of a beat, always metamorphizing into the next brief idea.

The problem is these highs are so disassociated that it renders Vortex of the Dark Knowledge a collection of dope moments, but not of dope songs. The compositional approach Cranial Osteotomy have taken is dizzying, disjointed, and high-octane, but so rooted in the art of the transition that remembering a whole track is a difficult task. I can recall the slow-mo slam opening up “Vortex of the Dark Knowledge”, the time signature changes littering “Cathedral Butchery Feast”, and a litany of other bits, but if you aren’t following the track list actively, you wouldn’t know you’re in certain songs until those highlights arrive. Song changes are so rapid as to be nonexistent, with only the requisite fadeout closing “Scorched Diadem” a clear signal the album has concluded. This outro is another highlight, with the drums continuing to dig more and more pockets into the menacing riff as it carries us to the finish line. It’s also another point of regret, as that outro is the only part of the song I can remember existing. Vortex of the Dark Knowledge is curiously backloaded, which, while not an issue unto itself, exacerbates the overall blurry nature of the album, as early cuts rush by without much in the way of real identity. While featuring a glut of moments to make listeners clutch the air and bench-press their couch, there are no songs that demand being replayed for their beginning-to-end sense of quality in composition.

Credit where it’s due, our Russian lads have indeed emerged from the ether sporting some real growth in their Dark Knowledge. Nevertheless, their struggles with putting together memorable songs over memorable snapshots cannot be denied. If this upward trajectory continues, we will all meet back here when I’m in my late 40s to be subjected to a real taint-kicker of a release. Until then, give it a listen, harvest your choice of cuts for some gym playlists, and then join those who have already chosen the path of brutality in seeking true enlightenment elsewhere.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Comatose Music
Website: Album Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: July 10th, 2026

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