Cancer is a reasonably impressive Death Metal band. The vocals are on par with the Death Standard and are occasionally excellent. Musically, Cancer is much like countless other Death Metal bands: brutal, crunchy, powerful, raw… You name it. They have some backing vocal help from John (Obituary) Tardy on the track “Die Die,” which was not among the best tracks, even with the help. My top four picks are (in ascending order): “C.F.C” (Which apparently stands for “Cancer Fucking Cancer”), “Body Count,” “Imminant Catastrophy” [sic] and the awesome title track. Most of the other songs (nine in all) are good, just not quite as good as those I mentioned. The lyrics are what killed some songs, like in “Die Die,” the title is repeated far too often, and the rest of the lyrics are somewhat poor. With a bit of refinement, Cancer could well be the Death Metal band. I have high hopes for their next effort.

{Cancer continued on with two more albums that I know of, and I have heard that they altered their sound a bit and released a fourth album, but I’ve never even seen an ad for that…}

[Notes in {curly brackets} are from the Metal Curse 1 - 4 Collected Edition (1999)]

Broken Hope; Jeremy Wagner and Dave Duff on guitars, Joe Ptacek with “the mouth,” Ed Hughes on bass and Ryan Stanek on drums; are definitely a Death Metal band. The band’s speed is powerful and grumbly and slow at times, not unlike a dumptruck. The speed is about identical to most songs on Slaughter’s Strappado (that’s the Death Metal Slaughter from Canada, ya freaks!). Vocally Joe is also comparable to Slaughter. Take Dave (Slaughter) Hewson’s vocals and make them a little deeper and smoother. Lyric-wise, I like two of the four songs. “Crib Death” and “Behemoth Rising” are cool and interesting. There’s nothing really wrong with the other two; they are just kind of there. Overall it is a pretty decent demo. Give Broken Hope a listen if you get the chance.

{Broken Hope have become a fairly well known name in the Death Metal underground. As you probably know, they have a string of albums on Metal Blade Records, and have evolved into a much faster and more intense band than they were at the time of this demo.}

[Notes in {curly brackets} are from the Metal Curse 1 - 4 Collected Edition (1999)]

Boorish Boot is a Punk band. Understand? They are not a Crossover band (D.R.I.), nor are they a Hardcore band (Sick of It All). They seem to be the direct descendants of Dead Kennedys. In fact, they sound almost exactly like them. I have been told that they are also derivative of The Sex Pistols, I guess I really wouldn’t know. Anyway, I have always been a big DK fan, so I’m glad that someone hasn’t given up on this kind of Punk. This six song tape was recorded somewhat low, and as a result the sound quality is diminished. But the songs themselves are all up-tempo and I like ‘em. My favorite is “Death Mission,” which is about abortion verses adoption. I guess Boorish Boot really do sound too much like Dead Kennedys, but I don’t think I’ll let it bother me. Unless Jello (Dead Kennedys frontman and now solo artist) bitches about them on his next spoken word album.

If you like Noise, then don’t read the rest of this review. Bloody Zombie Ritual is a one man Noise band that is going nowhere. The guy in the band is Steinbock and the only things I can credit him for are the lyric sheet and the production. I could shit better than this guy sounds. On some songs there are monster sounds and chainsaw noises and puking sounds. This tape sucks bad. The only thing it sounds like to me is some guy picked up a guitar and started playing noisy shit. If you like Noise, then you will like this, but I don’t. So I think this demo smokes ass. The artwork on the cover matches the music and the lyrics ain’t too great either. However, you may want to buy it just to see how bad this is. Three pages of lyrics included.

This is really good for a live recording. The “feel” of actually being there comes across very well. Bloody Mary play emotional, heavy Thrash and, apparently, with the addition of new singer, Randy Robinson, they are at their best live. His vocals are effective and harsh, without being too raw for the music. This is a band to watch out for and you should check this tape out.

This demo has several good points: 1. Awesome guitar sound, 2. Excellent recording, and 3. Interesting songs. Conversely, it has at least one bad point (possibly two): The mix is sort of bad, the vocals are too loud. Also I could see people having a problem with The Chainsaw’s vocals. I kinda like ‘em, though. Sort of yelled, but not monotone [and not like how Sean Killian (Vio-Lence) is not monotone]. All things considered, this is one demo that you should have. And if they continue to improve at this rate, by about three more demos (or whatever) they will be in the top ten bands in the world.

Back to Reality is an above average Thrash demo that has the following good points: 1. Excellent recording and production, 2. Two color cover, and printed lyrics, 3. Jeff’s vocals are very fitting for the music, and 4. The music is creative and memorable. This is pure Thrash, no elements of Death Metal. Blaylok are very talented and deserve some support. If you like Thrash, this is it.

This is probably one of the most Satanic albums I have yet to hear. The band members do not use the names given to them by the mortal wenches who incubated their unripe souls. Then again, I don’t blame them. They are fairly adept at their instruments and the drums keep a constant beat throughout the album. It is all very Deathly with some decent guitar solos by the Caller of the Storms. Lyric-wise it is all black. Obviously Satan inspired. There is obvious back-masking, but I don’t have the technology to decode my Lucifermas present-come-early. The music is decent enough, and the lyrics are true Hellspawn. If you like the lesion-infested penis of Satan stirring your soul like a bowl of blood and you have ten dollars lying around, then check this out. If, on the other hand, you would rather pour boiling holy water on the Darkened one’s cock… you figure it out.

At first, this power trio reminded me a bit of Venom. However, as things progressed, I found that the similarities with Venom were mostly superficial. This tape has a color cover and was digitally mastered. The sound quality is excellent. The guitar and bass are both present, but the drums are somewhat minimalistic. Kenny’s vocals are very thick and meaty, but not raw or screamy. That is kinda interesting. The lyrics are decent- until the chorus in each song. The titles are repeated until I can’t stand it any longer. This detracts from an otherwise fine example of somewhat basic Thrash.