When talking about underground extreme metal in the United States, it is almost impossible to not run into one of the many projects of a man who goes by “The Black Lourde of Crucifixion”, better known as Cazz Grant. Cazz started his metal journey in the year 1982 by finding a copy of OZZY OSBOURNE’S Blizzard of Ozz on cassette, and from the age of twelve on, he was hooked on the genre. He was then inspired to write music for the sake of the love of metal, then met a friend named Patrick Hughes, who eventually got him to start listening to more and more metal. The two friends would then form a band called Pyramid consisting of Cazz, Patrick, and a guy by the name of Steve Anderson. During this time, Cazz was introduced to more and more bands such as BLACK SABBATH, DIO, TWISTED SISTER, and DEEP PURPLE. A couple of years later, he would begin listening to bands like SLAYER and MERCYFUL FATE which he described as his “‘drug of choice.” Around 1983 he began playing drums with his first band on a drum kit that was loaned to him from a priest at the Holy Savior School named Father Mike, which he never ended up returning. His first kit of his own was a red Mapex which he still uses today; he bought it when he joined a band called WITCHERY (not to be confused with the much more famous USBM act WITCHERY which became BLACK WITCHERY). Over time Cazz had begun honing his skills on drums through playing in many different bands such as Pyramid, Acephalous Vector, Macabre Forces, Satanic Slaughter, Caution, Witchery, and eventually CRUCIFIER in 1990.
Early on, the name was debated between the many founding members of CRUCIFIER, Dan Kamp on guitar, Mike Machette on guitar, Chris Miller on bass, and Cazz Grant on both drums and vocals, which would become a major staple of his career. Cazz believes that the name came from MORBID ANGEL’s song Suffocation and that it eventually won over all the different names on the list. The band began practicing in the “Crucifier Brotherhood Attic“, which was the attic in Cazz’s home, which also promptly caused lots of noise for the neighborhood. Through all of this practicing, CRUCIFIER put together their first demo tape in 1991 titled “Humans Are Such Easy Prey“, which notably has a classic CRUCIFIER song titled “Demons of Filth“, which stands out very well from all of the other songs on the demo. All of the songs have very descriptive lyrics which are used to tell a story throughout all the evil riffage; this will become a staple of Cazz Grant’s work in the future.
The music is very reminiscent of early INCANTATION mixed with many different black metal techniques, which will slowly begin seeping into the band’s music more and more over time. Cazz explained to me that at the time, people were fervently looking for new demos of to listen to, as there was a craving for bands from the underground. The release also helped build ties with numerous people as well as formally put the CRUCIFIER name into the American underground scene. Cazz still looks back upon the release very fondly in every zine I have seen, even describing it as “the epitome of raw and underground sound”. The writing itself came from the guitarists within the band, and everyone else contributed to the songs; it was very much a new experience for everyone, as previously no member of CRUCIFIER had much experience writing or recording songs in a band.
As for the equipment used, Cazz was using the same drum set that he uses today, and one of the guitarists used an Ampeg amp which was “a beast,” according to Cazz. Around this time, Cazz states that he recalls “being very much of a pain in the ass about being professional.” which made many relationships harder for him over time; however, he says it was necessary due to his drive to be “a very solid band with very solid special music” so he does not regret this behavior. After the first demo, the bassist Chris Miller and one of the guitarists, Mike Machette, had left the band, which made the band into a two-piece between Cazz and Dan. Cazz believes that they left due to wanting to form another band and because of Cazz’s increased control over the vision and the music of CRUCIFIER. The two-man lineup for the next demo titled “Crown of Thorns” in 1992 was then immediately recorded and incorporated extremely low vocals rivaling those of Craig Pillard formerly of INCANTATION. This release was slightly more death metal-focused than the debut demo; however, the overall sound is not radically different. Cazz describes the recording of this demo as “overall the same ” as the first demo a year prior. According to Cazz, this cassette was also very popular among the underground as he recalls people all over the world asking to have a copy of “Crown of Thorns,” he describes this time as a “great time for CRUCIFIER“, a special time for him, and that he was happy about the direction that the band was going in. Around this time CRUCIFIER started doing shows in full with Dan Keaton in rehearsals and live performances, CRUCIFIER also began using dead deer as well as goat heads onstage as a theatrical element which Cazz believes helped build them quite a reputation. Dan Keaton then joined the band on bass for their second landmark release besides the debut demo for an EP titled “Unparalleled Majesty“, which had ramped up the massive black metal influence which was extremely apparent in songs like “Sodomy of Angels” and “Something Wicked This Way Comes“. There are notably higher vocals on this release which have not been a large part of the last two demos; Cazz began to really allow the black metal influence to seep into the band at this time. I asked him in our interview about the change in writing with much more black metal elements, and he told me that he believed it was a small change that was not intentional. Lyrically he began steering away from standard death metal themes into more satanic and evil lyrical themes; however, he maintains that the style of writing remained the same as the 1992 “Crown of Thorns” demo. This EP was also CRUCIFIER’s first release that was not an independent release as the label Pagan Records picked up the band. Cazz explains that he was previously in contact with the owner of Pagan Records, Tomasz, because of his zine titled “Holocaust“, to which he reviewed one of the CRUCIFIER demos. Because he was starting a label, he asked Cazz if CRUCIFIER would be the first band on it, so Cazz immediately jumped on the decision to be signed. His perception of the EP is still very favorable to this day.
During this time, the wide media coverage of the Norwegian church burnings took the underground by storm, as to which Cazz and the rest of CRUCIFIER were not very happy or impressed with their European counterparts for doing such things, so they “stayed away from that whole ideology and circus” . After this demo, Dan Keaton would leave the band; Cazz says it was because he was “young and not very reliable at rehearsal,” the replacement would be Gary Gandy on bass because Gary was a “very fitting and eager replacement.” . Later on, in the same year, CRUCIFIER would release the “By Disgrace of God” demo, which had two songs that had a very similar sound and vibe to the “Unparalleled Majesty” EP. When asked about why this demo was released so soon to an EP, Cazz stated that they were purposefully planned separately from each other and they were just prepared to do the releases that way with Pagan Records.
After this demo, Dan Kamp would leave the band for a spot within INCANTATION which would impact Cazz’s feelings about INCANTATION and his friend Dan. He states that “I was very distraught about it, mainly because Dan and I shared some time together and it was important to me to keep that good team alive. When it fell apart, it hit Gary and I hard.” . As for his thoughts on why Dan ended up leaving the band, “I think Dan wanted to be in a more popular band, quite frankly. I wouldn’t deny that either. INCANTATION was definitely in a better place than us, at least in sales and popularity. INCANTATION was a band that I looked up to at one point. They weren’t necessarily an influence but more of an inspiration. We both came from the same era” . I also feel like I should note that CRUCIFIER’s shows became increasingly memorable and grotesque around this time due to the increased frequency of shows with animal carcasses onstage. Cazz states that CRUCIFIER eventually became known as “that band with the dead animals on the stage,” which “definitely gave us an edge.” He then shared a story with me revolving around animal heads on stage.
In Cazz’s own words: “That first show we were done playing and one of our buddies Sean Bell carried the goat heads and deer stuff out to his van, and the cops rolled up at the same time. So, the police interrogated him and put him in the back seat of their car. It was a trip! But luckily, we kept the receipts from the butcher where we bought some of the stuff, and it got him out of trouble! Another story was, as I mentioned at that IMMOLATION show. We had some goat heads in a cooler on ice. And at load-in, we kept it with our stuff. So as we were bringing stuff in, Ross, Bob, and Craig all came over to us and said, “cool, Cazz, you got a beer in that cooler for us?” I said, “absolutely! Reach in and get some for yourselves!” We opened the cooler, and they freaked out that there was no beer in there! Ross said, “Cazz, you are fucked up!” Great times!”
Between the years of 1993-1996, CRUCIFIER would see no releases except for a self-titled compilation in 1995 put out by Pagan Records, which was a combination of the “Unparalleled Majesty” EP and the “By Disgrace of God” demo. However, during this time, CRUCIFIER was playing many shows, and Cazz was just getting started with playing in bands such as I.N.F.A.N.T.R.Y. (Hatecore/RAC with Gelal Necrosodomy), GRAND BELIAL’S KEY (USBM), and BRETHEREN (Heavy/Thrash with Jeff Anderson ex-Crucifer ex-Hearse among many others.) Cazz also decided to share a story from between the years of 1993-1996.
In Cazz’s own words: “The best story in those years was the show we played in New Jersey with UNLEASHED and a bunch of other great bands. New guitarist Mike Pandorf and I were driving from my house to the show in North Jersey, some 2 hours away. So as we’re driving my dad’s truck halfway up the Jersey turnpike, we pull over at a rest stop to get some drinks and take a piss. As we start to drive again, I notice that the truck is running oddly. Apparently, the transmission went out, and we only had the first and second gear, which meant we had to drive another hour to the show on a highway at about 35 mph!!! I wanted to just get the car back home, so my old man wouldn’t kill me, as if I wouldn’t get killed either way!!? But Mike talked me into driving the rest of the way. We did get all the way up there, but before our last exit, a cop got behind us and got on the loudspeaker, and yelled, “Hey you!! You’re the reason all this traffic is backed up! Pullover!!!!!” So we pull over; Mike says, let me do all the talking! So this giant muscle-bound cop gets up to the truck, and Mike tells him exactly what happened. The cop was cool with that story and gave us an escort off the highway. Luckily we made it, and all the guitar amps that were with us got there too! And we proceeded to play one of the best shows we ever did! Also, funny thing, Dan Kamp, our old guitarist, was there. And he lived right by my house. He offered to tow me all the way back home with his big green Ford pickup!!! It was a very long 2-hour drive home, but thanks to him, everything was okay. My old man wasn’t horribly pissed too. Maybe he knew the truck was going to break!? Haha!”
Finally, CRUCIFIER had returned in the year 1996 with what I believe is the most black metal release in their discography, on bass was Mark Neto, who was from England. Mark often interacted with the members of CRADLE OF FILTH and brought that influence with him when he played on this release. Cazz states on the importance of Mark evolving the sound of CRUCIFIER that “I think finding Mark (who was a British dude who got a visa to come to play with us) added to that evolution. He was buddies with the dudes in CRADLE OF FILTH and had some of that influence. I thought it was interesting, to say the least.” Another very important aspect of this release is that this record is the only CRUCIFIER release to allow someone else other than Cazz on vocals, notably one of which was Lord Vlad Luciferian, today known as Lord Kaiaphas (THOKKIAN VORTEX, ex-THOKK, ex-GBK, ex-ANCIENT), who had left GBK and dissolved THOKK by this time and was playing in ANCIENT. When I spoke with Lord Kaiaphas he said he kept his involvement very brief and stated that he was “just doing backing vocals” henceforth, I assume that he was likely doing it for fun. Cazz stated about the additional vocalists and the guitar parts from The Marauder/Holocausto (ARGHOSLENT, ex-GBK, ex-Thokk), “Notably, this was the only thing I’ve done with CRUCIFIER where I allowed someone else to add vocals to one of our releases. At the end of Fire and Brimstones, we had Vlad Luciferian from GBK and some of the Virginian Satanic Hispanics doing screams! It was a very fun time in the studio for that release! (The Satanic Hispanics were a group of metalheads in the DC extreme metal scene who were very into black metal, they often hung out in graveyards -DEADitor) This EP was also going to have The Marauder of ARGHOSLENT record all the guitars, but at the last moment, he opted to not play, citing that CRUCIFIER riffs are too hard. I was like, huh? The dude literally writes the best riffs ever. But I did take it as the highest of compliments at that time!”
As for the equipment on the release Cazz stated that he used the same drum kit as well as Jeff Anderson’s amps for the recording, while Mark Neto used his own bass and the studio’s bass rig. Notably this release was put out by Sinistrari Records which is Gelal Necrosodomy’s label, when I asked Cazz about this new signing he explained to me that he has known Gelal since very early in his career starting around 1991 or 1992, Gelal then expressed to Cazz that he wanted to work on a release with CRUCIFIER which Cazz was very happy about. Apparently at the time Gelal was only a partial owner of the Sinistrari Zine/Label with another individual by the name of Zaid.
The next release was a split between Ohio heavyweights NUNSLAUGHTER and CRUCIFIER in 1998, which only included one CRUCIFIER song with Cazz on all instruments and vocals. This was because Mark Neto had left for Britain as his visa had run out, and that he was likely not interested in staying with CRUCIFIER according to Cazz. During this time Cazz was happy with the band being a solo project however looking back he states that it does not work for the ideology of CRUCIFIER because he enjoys playing live shows. A favorite moment from this release for Cazz was recording it at Jeff Anderson’s studio with some really great equipment, he states that “it was just fun working with him in seeing his own things unfold. And we both had the same visions so things went smoothly. I loved doing everything on that recording!”
After this release CRUCIFIER would slow down greatly because Cazz was very busy with GBK and things would unfold very slowly over time with CRUCIFIER, often in a sporadic manner. A compilation titled “The Ninth Year” released in 1999 on what many seemingly believe is a label called “The Crucifier Brotherhood International” which was formed in 1994 by Cazz. His reasoning behind this is “I started The Crucifier Brotherhood International in 1994. I think I wanted to make a very exclusive club for guys/musicians who felt the same way I did. It was going to be a fan headquarters for CRUCIFIER and even a distro, but over a short time I thought to maybe just make the brotherhood a bit less official. So I put my moniker on a release or two then put it to bed. But again, it is always in my heart and in the hearts of those who felt/feel like I do about our love of this genre.”
At the time when 2003 rolled around Cazz had decided to record CRUCIFIER’s first full length album titled “Stronger Than Passing Time” which featured many new songs as well as re-recorded and heavily changed versions of songs that have previously been featured on CRUCIFIER demos and EPs in the past. Which was released on Death to Mankind records (changed to Die Todesrune Records and now is known as Deathrune Records), as for why Cazz had decided to leave Sinistrari Records for this release is unclear however he remained close with Gelal and his associates. However, according to Cazz in the “Metalcore Fanzine,” Gelal had recommended Death To Mankind to Cazz for the full-length release, and Cazz was highly pleased by the final release of the album. Cazz has also repeatedly stated that CRUCIFIER as a band stopped “evolving” when this album was released; in a way, this can be considered the third milestone in the band’s career as this was the culmination of thirteen years of writing and playing music for Cazz. A new lineup was present on this release; the musicians added were George “Necrodemious Hammerhorde” Loveland on bass and Spencer “Madman” Murphy on guitar. When putting the album together, Cazz stated, “Most of the songs were old tracks, so we just needed to show George the structure and riffs. Spencer and I were writing and tightening up as we prepared to record. It was just a matter of getting all three of us up to snuff” and that the band was at their peak in professionalism. When speaking with George Loveland, I learned that Cazz lent out most of the equipment used when recording; he remembers using an Ibanez road gear bass plugged directly into ProTools. When doing rehearsals, he used an Ampeg Head and Cab but did not specify the model. It was his first experience with such technology. George also decided to share a story from this time in 2003 when he first played live with CRUCIFIER.
In George’s own words, “Well, what was very interesting was my first ‘road trip,’ so to speak…CRUCIFIER was asked to play with GBK, NUNSLAUGHTER, and EVISCIUM in Ohio. I went for the whole weekend because this was also around the same time GBK was asked to play at BlitzKrieg Fest in Illinois as well. We got there just as EVISCIUM was finishing their set, and I was running around trying to get ready because I sat in a rented minivan for twelve hours, and my body was sore from just sitting there- Cazz did a full GBK set, and then CRUCIFIER was up. We only got to play four or five songs before the head that Spencer was using for the set ended up blowing a fuse, and we could not continue. I was kinda pissed because I felt like I traveled all that time just to play a mini-set, but of course, it was a lesson for future shows.” These shows were all centered around the release of NUNSLAUGHTER’s Goat album.
Then there was yet another gap between releases where Cazz stated that he had issues with losing members and going through changes between the years of 2003-2008. In 2009 Madman and Hammerhorde had each left the band after the release of the “Trampled Under Cloven Hooves” release, which was a very tight release that was very similar to the split before it titled “Deep Grave Dungeons” with BESTIAL MOCKERY, SATHANAS, and THRONEUM. On the departures, Cazz stated, “Madman abruptly went through many personal issues and left the band. We didn’t even really get a goodbye. And I was at a point where I was happy just doing CRUCIFIER alone, until the right guys came along again. So with that thought, I decided to let George go, or more so let me free myself. George was already doing his project DECIEVERION, so it wasn’t hard on him to move forward.” George still remains very friendly with Cazz to this day and still supports CRUCIFIER. George also states that his choice in leaving the band was a “mutual decision” because of his involvement with too many projects and his style of playing, which was more geared towards the Norwegian style of black metal, however for him, it was a “dream [for me] to even be in that band” He also said when talking about Cazz “Cazz was someone I could personally look up to back then because at the time I was new to the so-called ‘scene.’ I really did not have the wisdom back then so I looked [up] to him.”
The next release was a compilation in 2013 titled “Coffins Through Time… a Mourning in Nazareth“, which was in collaboration with Iron Bonehead as Cazz was just happy to work with the owner Patrick Kremer. CRUCIFIER’s next release was “Thy Sulfur Throne on High” in 2018, which was released on Deathrune Records. Cazz did this release with Deathrune likely because of a past contractual obligation or another alternative reason, and he needed to get it done sooner than later; new players came into the band such as Chris Kerns and Rob Spisak as well as Dan Keaton from the 1993 “Unparalleled Majesty” EP returning this time on guitars. Cazz shared a story about how the recording went and band politics with me on how this album went.
“During the final stages of recording and mixing, Dan Keaton resigned. He was unhappy with how the release sounded. I also know that he wasn’t happy with me. But that’s fine, I’m used to that!! During lead recording Dan told me that if I wanted to do leads for him, or in coordination with him, that it was cool. Well, I did finish a lead for him. With which he answered by sneaking into the studio to redo that lead all over, without my or any of the other guy’s knowledge. Which is too sketchy of a thing to do, so we all really had no respect for that. Luckily he left on his own.” (When I asked Dan Keaton to comment on his time in CRUCIFIER, I had gotten no response from him whatsoever. -DEADitor)
CRUCIFIER continued their signature sound in 2022 with the EP “Say Your Prayers” with the return of Spencer “Madman” Murphy on lead guitar as well as partial bass duties. Cazz is noted as being much happier with “Say Your Prayers” than the release of “Thy Sulfur Throne on High”. This EP would be received quite well by the underground as it seemed more like a return to the sound and feel of the first album. Shortly after the release there would be yet another lineup change for CRUCIFIER which would be the departure of Chris Kerns on bass and Rob Spisak on guitar. After they had departed the band due to unclear reasoning, Cazz would decide to recruit his friends Vince “Ordog” Papi (HEARSE, ex-BLUDGEON, ex-MEGATON) and Gelal Necrosodomy (UNHOLD’s ABSURD, ARGHOSLENT,, GBK, HEARSE, etc) on bass and guitar respectively. While this lineup change was taking place, Spencer “Madman” Murphy and Cazz would enter the studio together to record the third full-length CRUCIFIER album “Led Astray”, which can be described as yet another offering of very well executed USBM in their signature style of black/death riffage with sinister melodies and solos layered over. Cazz and Madman notably showcase a less familiar dimension to CRUCIFIER which was showcased in the past before on this album where they pull back from playing and let chords ring out in order to immerse the listener in a ton of atmosphere, which was utilized briefly in the past on songs like “A Mourning in Nazareth” and “Spirits”. The reaction to the release from the underground would be quite favorable as the album would get very positive reviews across the board. Currently, CRUCIFIER is playing select shows and fests with their new lineup.
Written By Goatman of Gubbio
Email: goatmanofgubbio@gmail.com
IG: @goatofgubbio
Crucifier – Led Astray released via Iron Bonehead Productions
All images acquired from Google