SHADOW KINGDOM RECORDS is proud to present CRUEL FORCE’s long-awaited third album, Dawn of the Axe, on CD, vinyl LP, and cassette tape formats.

Truest of the true, Germany’s CRUEL FORCE burst onto the scene in 2008 with the Into the Crypts… demo. While many have tried to emulate the ancient German (black)thrash sound, CRUEL FORCE brimmed with an authenticity that could not be denied, as well as songwriting that added to that noble tradition rather than lazily picking at its corpse. Their two successive albums, 2010’s The Rise of Satanic Might and 2011’s Under the Sign of the Moon, made CRUEL FORCE a certifiably CULT name in the international metal underground. Sadly, the band fell into a hiatus following that second album, but returned reinvigorated with the comeback 7″ EP Across the Styx in 2022 and are ready to make up for lost time with their imminent third album for new label home SHADOW KINGDOM.

Titled Dawn of the Axe, CRUEL FORCE’s long-awaited new album is, in many ways, a new chapter for the band. As presaged by that short-length, Dawn of the Axe harkens to dustier, more archaic times – ones where subgenre delineations weren’t so strict and all was…  more