Utterly amazing Black Thrash. Supercharged with evil energy from the first second to the last. Flawless playing and production. Truly tortured vocals. And memorable songs. Extremely close to perfection.

[This band changed its name to The Crown and this album was reissued under that name. -Editor]

First off, my CD arrived with a small crack near the outer edge, so the last few songs are a bit fucked up. I didn’t want to delay this review until the next issue, so I’m stuck reviewing what I’ve got. And what that happens to be is really energetic and technical Black Thrash. Well played and written throughout - or at least as far as I know.

My “advance tape” thankfully only has three songs from the album. They’re more than enough for me to determine that I’d rather have my genitals chewed off by squirrels than listen to the rest of this crap. I am not well enough versed in derivative Pop spank-off bands to make an accurate comparison, but let me say that these guys are so weak that they make Pearl Jam sound like Morbid Angel.

Death / Black Metal that totally relies on a drum machine for its aggression and power.

[Metal Curse #11 had an additional loose page (“Last Second Additions”) inserted into the centerfold of the zine, featuring a bunch of even-shorter-than-usual “bonus” reviews of stuff that arrived after the deadline for that issue. This is one of those “Last Second Additions” reviews.]

Thrash, Death, Sludge with utterly sick vox. Karyn can get more from her voice than anyone else I can think of, going from Death growls to piercing shrieks to insane whispers. That’s the main draw for Crisis, but the music is consistently pretty heavy and fairy interesting.

Pretty intense Thrashy Death Metal, sometimes along the lines of old Kreator, maybe. Of course the production is a lot more polished than that, sounding more like new Napalm Death. They do have a few of what I’d consider to be “not-great” riffs, but this is mostly pretty cool.

I was going to say that this wasn’t so bad until I got to track 5, “For Love.” I don’t want to hear some fuckhead yell “If I couldn’t feel your love” in his pathetic attempt at a Death growl. And he repeats it maybe 50 thousand times before the end of the track. Does he want to fuck their chick keyboardist that bad? She’s fuckin’ heinous if the photos are any indication. Grow some balls, jerkoffs.

What a weird mix of styles. They’re solid players, and range from sort of Thrashy to brutal Death, which is cool. But they also have some Pantera elements in the riffs and especially the vocals, which is not cool. Sometimes the singer talks his way through things, sometimes the vox are mechanically overdriven, and other times they’re actually pretty good. This, shall we say, “confusion” is paralleled in the music.

You could call this Death Metal, but there are obvious influences from most other Metal forms, too. Not bad, but not exactly inspirational.

I’m not sure if I was supposed to review this, but it’s too cool not to. Hopefully everyone has heard of the sickos known as Corpsevomit, but if not use the address below immediately [The demo reviews in the print issues of Metal Curse had physical addresses listed for the bands. -Editor]. Often rehearsal tapes sound really terrible, but this one sounds as good as many demos I have. These bastards belt out a couple of their traditional horrific Death Metal songs, and bookend them with a pair of Slayer covers (“Fight ‘til Death” and “At Dawn They Sleep”), complete with Araya-esque vocals. That this band isn’t signed yet is completely insane.

Often this sort of fast Black Metal is somewhat hampered because the speed and intensity of the drums sort of overpowers the riffs. Conspiracy are too wise for that, and allow their riffs to always be heard, no matter how high the tempo. And they can get going very fast sometimes. But they’re also smart enough to occasionally slow things down. The sound quality here isn’t too great, not that it bothers me that much, but in a good studio, these songs might achieve perfection.

Clueless geeks with good equipment trying to be heavy.

[Metal Curse #11 had an additional loose page (“Last Second Additions”) inserted into the centerfold of the zine, featuring a bunch of even-shorter-than-usual “bonus” reviews of stuff that arrived after the deadline for that issue. This is one of those “Last Second Additions” reviews.]

This sounds like what I might have expected Metallica to be like by now, if they still had one testicle between the lot of them. But that’s still pretty wimpy, and more than a little influenced by “Hard” Alternative. I can’t really tolerate much of this crap.

I guess this deceptively named disc this is better than their self-titled demo-CD, but it just doesn’t seem to have the necessary intensity for Hardcore, if that’s what they’re trying for. It seems really bland and sort of halfhearted, no matter what you’d call it.

Well, I utterly hated their demo (see review), so it’s no surprise that Roadrunner would sign them. What the fuck is going on with labels signing bands like this? In case you don’t feel like locating the demo review in this endless sea of words, these guys sound like a White Zombie cover band that decided to attempt to write some songs, and completely failed at it, but was given a contract anyway. Add another disc to my pile for backyard Tron games.

Ciborium sound really good. They occasionally have loud keyboards, and somewhat Thrashy Black Metal as far as the music goes, but the vocals are well within the low, growly realms of Death. This is a combination I love. Admittedly, the keyboards aren’t right sometimes, sounding out of place, but that is very rare. And the more I listen to these songs, the better they get. Ciborium have perfection in them, as is evidenced in the flawless song “Catalepsy,” and in a lot of places throughout the others. Hopefully I’ll be hearing more from these guys soon.

Longtime readers of Metal Curse know already that this album was destined to get a perfect rating. Cianide have proven, time and time again that they are the ultimate Death Metal band. They understand that their heavier-than-Godzilla songs must also be memorable, and they deliver on that in spades. This album, like their latest demo (Rage War 1996), is a occasionally a little faster than they have been in the past, but it is executed flawlessly, and seems to have only made them better. All bands should be required to listen to this album (and a select few others) to hear how it should be done. “Destroying the trends / Killing the false ones dead! / Headbanging ‘til the end / Metal NEVER BENDS!” If that doesn’t deserve a ten, nothing does. Buy this and support Cianide or I’ll fucking murder you (it’s not the band’s fault that some idiot got the song order wrong when he did the layout).

Kate’s vocals have turned into a raspy Blues/Hard Rock wail, and sometimes the music also seems more in that style, too, rather than the expected light Thrash / Metal. The guitar sound is still thick and meaty, but when it is at it’s heaviest, Kate seems to always have to try to prove what a tough chick she is, and doesn’t pull it off too well.

Ultra-heavy traditional Death Grind. The lyrics are not as gory as I would have thought from the artwork, and the music not quite as straightforward. CT takes a few chances by breaking form the constant speed, and trying out some quirky ideas. Somehow it almost always seems to work for them.

I was really looking forward to this release, and was pleasantly surprised upon my first listen. Everything has improved: The writing, the playing, the production, the vox, the intensity - everything. They must be very happy with this razor-sharp slab of Death Metal.