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Cancer > Death Shall Rise > Reviews
Cancer - Death Shall Rise

Gore Shall Rise - 94%

Hames_Jetfield, March 28th, 2023

The second album of the Cancer from England, just like Obituary, had to wait for only a year. At that time, almost in the same style as the Tardy brothers and co., John Walker's band made a clear step forward and caused a much bigger hype. Let's move on. Soon after the well-received "To The Gory End", John Walker and the rest of his friends decided to entrust the production of the second lp to Scott Burns and his Morrisound (they previously recorded at Loco Studios), and if that wasn't enough, they found James Murphy there, who didn't have much work at the time and agreed - at first in session - to join Cancer to record solo parts for the new album - "Death Shall Rise". It's not without reason that all these allusions to the American Obituary come to mind. On "Death Shall Rise" Cancer made such a significant leap as Obituary between "Slowly We Rot" and "Cause Of Death".

Stylistically, on "Death Shall Rise" Cancer continues the themes from the first one album and, despite becoming more Americanized, the band still plays their own way. Of course, the first seconds make it clear who produced this album, but what's wrong with that? Absolutely nothing, because the sound breaks the walls and perfectly exposes how much the guitars and drums gained massiveness. For this reason, the thrash metal influences went far away here, and in their place was the death metal heaviness. This is a big plus for Cancer, because the music has become more brutal and more devastating (although there is not much blasting, and the band itself prefers to stick to medium tempo anyway), but at the same time even more interesting and better thought out. Of course, their vision for extreme music is still far from complicating, although it does not lack a lot of dynamics, catchiness, memorable motifs, climate and - this time - fabulous solos. Well, solos. I dare say that on "Death Shall Rise" James Murphy recorded some of the best solos in his, definitely short career. The way they match the rest of the instruments, the feel or the melody is simply excellent, it perfectly diversifies such songs as "Back From The Dead", "Burning Casket" (interestingly, the song from the first demo), the title track or "Gruesome Tasks". Well, and if someone is interested only in brutal side, this one also makes an electrifying impression. This is where death metal hits like "Hung, Drawn & Quartered" (an awesome vocal duet with Glen Benton in the chorus), "Tasteless Incent", "Corpse Fire", "Internal Decay", but...all the others, too .

Cancer's second album, therefore, perfectly illustrates the progress that this band has made over the course of a year. "Death Shall Rise" compared to their debut is more brutal, more diverse, has incomparably better solos and can boast a much more massive sound. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that John Walker's group gained even more interest in 1991.

Originally on A bit of subjectivism...in metal

The brits do it better - 88%

Forever Underground, September 13th, 2022

What I like most about this album is that the members of the british band Cancer managed to deploy a totally different sound from their debut, which had an incredibly aggressive and grotesque tone, imitating the early Tampa death metal scene sound while doing it better than many classic bands from that area.

At first it seems quite obvious that this was the style of sound they achieved with this album as it was recorded in Tampa and featured the collaboration of the reputed James Murphy, but the evolution of the musical direction that Cancer showed with this album is not simply just there, in comparison with the debut the music gains in complexity, the production is cleaner and that helps to discern better the more technical moments of the instrumentation, besides they seem much more willing to add new elements like the slow passages that one can hear in "Back from the Dead" or the great influence of the NWOBHM in the guitar solos that result extremely melodic and satisfying as in the song with the same name as the album or the already mentioned (and I will surely mention it more as it is one of the strongest points of the album) "Back from the Dead".

Even with all the changes, they retain that natural ability to create brutal but catchy choruses that work so well, in almost any song we can find such a moment that works, whether it's with the aggressiveness of the opener "Hung, Drawn and Quartered", which turns the beginning of the album into a rush of adrenaline, or with the mid-paced and rhythmic "Tasteless Incest" or with the slow but incredibly heavy, and even more so in its chorus, "Back from the Dead" (I told you I was going to mention this song again, it's fucking unbelievably good!) And all of this, while led by great instrumentation, is also provided by the powerfully growling vocals of John Walker, whose performance showcases a voice with a cadenced, heavy and aggressive attitude being the vital piece that ties the rest of the elements together to craft a series of songs that are at the very least solid and in some cases are some of the best made in the early scene.

The drums, as in many productions of this era are incredibly unstable and clumsy, it has been said many times that at this stage of extreme metal most drummers and producers still didn't know what the fuck they were doing or how the sound of the drums had to fit in with the rest of the instruments, so for most of the album it sounds incredibly clunky and sloppy, and yet Carl Stokes still manages to display some moments of genuine technicality that serve as a perfect example of the progress in musical ability from the much simpler and rawer debut album.

Unfortunately, not all the songs work at the same level, the high points of this album are spectacular and I find them far above the peak of other bands like Obituary or Autopsy (talking about bands close in time and sound) the riffs are brutal, the chorus are very catchy and the melodic guitar solos serves as an elegant contrast to a totally aggressive theme, but there are a number of songs on the album that simply fail to be interesting and don't shine in all these sections or directly in any of them, of course if this was the case we would be talking about easily one of the best albums ever, and although "Death Shall Rise" is without a doubt a must for any death metal fan and the consolidation for Cancer as one of the most important United Kingdom bands of the scene, it lacks that consistency throughout the work that is what leaves it at the gates of excellence.

Cult classic - 95%

Superreallycool, October 8th, 2014
Written based on this version: 1991, 12" vinyl, Vinyl Solution

I'm not trying to say that Cancer was ever a bad band, but their debut album "To the Gory End" was amateurish to say the least. But when ex-Obituary and ex-Death guitarist James Murphy joined, it gave cancer a much needed shot of adrenalin, and kicked the band into creating the best album of their career. From what I can tell, Murphy didn't write any of the songs on here, but his superior guitar playing skills allowed Cancer to write more of what they wanted to write, because they had a guitarist able to play it.

If you're familiar with death metal, add a bit of complexity on top of that, and the result is this. Cancer doesn't really bring any new ideas to the table, but they take ideas already done and does them quite well. There aren't any new, experimental sounds found here, just a complex version of some good old fission death metal.

There are good and bad things here, but you can tell that Cancer has learned quite a bit since they put out their debut. They've evolved from seemingly having not a clue as to what they're doing, to on this record where an action plan has been established. The songs on this album are far better written than their counterparts on "To the Gory End". The band's performance is significantly improved since their last release, and it seems they intended to use more of their new found skill.

John Murphy also provides the guitar solos for this album. His solos end up being one of two things, either aggressive and spectacular, or they become bogged down by Murphy's effects. None of the solos here are explicitly bad, they just don't stand up to the other half of the guitar solos. "Death Shall Rise" the song has one of the solos where James doesn't try to do to much with effects, and lets his skill and creativity speak for themselves.

Lyrically, this album doesn't stand out. There isn't anything special here with the lyrics. Blood and guts, the usual death metal fanfare. Lyric topics aside, they aren't especially well written either, although they aren't clumsy nor do they detract from the song's ability to be enjoyed. If you are one of those people who really enjoys some intellectual, well written lyrics, this album is not something that you'll enjoy.

For a band who is on their second album, whose first was both a commercial and artistic failure, getting a second album made is not a small feat. To get a producer like James Burns to produce this album after the failure of the last one, that is even more surprising. It also seems to have been a surprise to Burns as well, as it seems that he didn't really try super hard here. Not that the production here is bad, it is actually well above average for a death metal album, shockingly good considering the conditions the band were under. It is just that, his later work with Death or Atheist is far, FAR superior. This is very much like his work with Sepultura. Again the production isn't bad at all, just not as good as it could have been. The production also kills Ian Buchanan's bass work. If you can hear it, you have ears of a god, as it, for all intents and purposes, isn't even here.

Long time death metal fans will love this album. It won't show them a new side of death metal, but it will show them what death metal looks like when it is executed to near perfection. This is basically a completely mandatory album for any death metal fan. This album is basically "The Night of the Living Dead" turned from a movie into an album, and it' works phenomenally well.

Unfortunately, we know what happened to Cancer. It may have been inevitable, but James Murphy's departure from the band was a major blow to the band. They learned a lot from his time in the band, but not enough to make an album on the level of this one ever again. After two more disks, the band called it quits in 2006. Still, this album alone is more than what most bands do in their entire career, and is worthy of purchase.

Death never looked more formidable. - 90%

hells_unicorn, November 14th, 2012

Call it an anomalous phenomenon, but there is something appealing about a familiar sounding album coming from an unfamiliar place. Granted, circa 1991 it wasn't out of the ordinary to hear an album taking its cues from the thrash-infused brilliance of "Leprosy", "Altars Of Madness" or "Beneath The Remains", but having a band come out of the land of Bolt Thrower and Carcass (aka England) that plays in this style is definitely a curious thing. But simply coming out of a novel location alone does not a great album make, and apparently Cancer knew this when they hit the ground running in the early 90s. Suffice to say, this is a band that was in it early on, and what they didn't quite have in originality they more than made up for in nasty, ear-destroying death thrashing quality insofar as "Death Shall Rise, their second LP is concerned.

As a whole, this album could be likened to a rock solid, moderately elaborate structure that rests on a monstrously fortified foundation. Every single piece of this creation acts as a supporting beam of the other, comprising a colossal whole that is insusceptible to any kind of assault via mortal hands or natural disaster. The production (ala Scott Burns of Sepultura fame) is a testament to how the early death/thrash sound can be likened to an iron clad titan, cleaning with a pristine shimmer from the fluttering lead guitar lines, impregnable beneath the density of the crush rhythm guitar sound and the massive battery of the drums, and the face of the beast proves an intimidating glare of hatred in the classical mode in a vocal display that is right along the lines of a mid-ranged bark out of John Tardy or David Vincent from around said time period. The songwriting naturally follows in similar fashion, showcasing an impressive assortment of Slayer and Teutonic Trio influenced mayhem with a slower, almost doom-like trot during the breakdowns that is heavily painted with gloom and agony.

To be sure, this is a band that hasn't given itself over to the always fast, always frenetic approach that was a staple of the genre's genesis under Possessed and early Death material, but is clearly in line with the moderated character that came soon after it and saw atmosphere as being equally as important as velocity and technical flair. "Hung, Drawn and Quartered", the album's lead off chapter, opts for the usual creepy ambient keyboard intro found on an album of this variety, but opts not to put things into full overdrive, but pushes forth at a moderately fast tempo in line with early Obituary and often paces things back to a mid-paced groove that isn't all that removed from a typical Entombed groove. Interestingly enough, it isn't until the 3rd song "Burning Casket" that things turn into a frenzied, thrashing celebration after the traditional Possessed model, and even then the landscape is still painted with a lot of catchy and mid-paced riffs and beats. This mixture of slow and moderately fast serves the band fairly well and dominates most of the album, giving way a bit in the case of "Corpse Fire" and "Internal Decay", both of which go a lot faster, employ frequent blast beats and somehow manage to veer into early Cannibal Corpse territory a bit.

Ultimately, despite all the right elements and being at the right place, at the right time, Cancer didn't take off the way most of their contemporaries did. Be this as it may, just about any self-respecting fan of early death metal should look into this album, as it embodies all of the great elements of the early 90s and almost none of its flaws. It might be a bit presumptuous to put it up there with the likes of "Cause Of Death", "Legion" and "Eaten Back To Life", but it definitely crosses into very similar territory and not only in terms of stylistic attributes. It's definitely the first album to go to insofar as this band is concerned and is deserving of a much bigger audience than what it has managed to attract up until now. Don't be on the wrong side of death when he rises, because according to this album, he has a pretty damned massive scythe to take you out with.

The Corpse Will Rise - 85%

Nightmare_Reality, March 29th, 2012

Here is an album that occasionally gets lost in the shuffle when discussing the best material to come out during the year 1991, which is one of the best years for metal in general, especially death metal. I don't want to lead you on and say that "Death Shall Rise" is the epitome of what death/thrash should be and that it is the greatest album of the subgenre, because it really isn't, but it is still an album that stands tall on its own feet and delivers a great eight-track onslaught of what you would expect a death/thrash record to sound like and one that certainly deserves some more recognition.

Cancer already had an uphill battle when releasing their sophomore album, because their fellow UK comrades in Bolt Thrower and Benediction would both release two excellent albums later in the year. Luckily, this group of metalheads had a different sound than their countrymen, not settling for a doomier or groovier sound, instead they would release an unbridled assault that became apparent once the classic "Hung, Drawn and Quartered" punched through the listener's speakers. Fast riffs and tremolos that sounded like they could have been written by Chuck Schuldiner himself (Maybe it was because James Murphy played guitar on this album?) and heavy riffs guaranteed to cause some whiplash to the vertebrae are what were to be found on this track, as well as an incredibly catchy chorus (with guest vocals from Glen Benton).

While the first track is the definition of brilliance, the rest never seem to catch up to the precedent set so early on. A lot of the riffs aren't anything overly special or anything that couldn't be heard from other bands that came out before, and the vocals are a little dry. The bass and drums also don't do anything that warrants much attention, either. The closest that Cancer comes to recapturing the greatness from the first track would be on the songs "Back From the Dead" and "Corpse Fire." The former track has a darker edge to it due to some melodies placed throughout, and the later song is a no-nonsense song that never lets up and even features some blast beats. After the eight songs have all gone through, there is an impression that is made on the listener, but it isn't on par with the same that are left by albums like "Dreaming with the Dead," "The Awakening" or "Idolatry." Not that it really matters, this album did have one of the best album covers out there, though, and had the music been as fantastic as the cover art then "Death Shall Rise" could have been an undeniable classic.

Highlights
"Hung, Drawn and Quartered"
"Back From the Dead"
"Corpse Fire"

Originally written for Nightmare Reality Webzine.
nightmarerealitywebzine.blogspot.com

Listenable, enjoyable, unoriginal - 70%

Turner, November 15th, 2011

If I was asked to sum up the early nineties Florida death metal scene as quickly as I could, rather than explain it in words or play a handful of bands, I'd put this album on. Not that this is in any way a classic album - it's just that rather than stress over picking a handful of Morbid Angel, Death, Obituary, Deicide, et al. songs, I could play “Hung, Drawn and Quartered” and be done with it. Cancer's second album isn't a masterpiece in any sense. It's almost a how-to guide. And of course the oddest part of all is that Cancer weren't even from Tampa, or Florida, or even the US - they came from England. Upon first listen I was expecting a much larger Paradise Lost influence. There is a small amount of Dismember or Entombed to be heard from time to time, but for the most part this is pure Tampa-worship. Naturally, this is only reinforced by the Scott Burns production. Burns' signature sound is personally one of my favourites, but while it's so clear and distinctive, it's also extremely typecasting. In the case of Death Shall Rise, without anything of any stand-out worth, it's ultra-evident. This album at times is even slightly reminiscent of Sepultura's Beneath the Remains, which Burns had produced two years earlier.

But while this sounds like criticism of the album, it's really not. Sure, at times it does sound like John Tardy is screaming over riffs from “Living Monstrosity”, and because of this the band never really gained the following that either Obituary or Death did.... but it's still a worthy, legitimate alternative. This is the album you put on when you can't decide which classic album to listen to. It's all of them at once, and while it loses out on originality, it makes up for it in immediate familiarity. From the first listen this felt like something I had heard many times before. And the songs mesh well - it is not a haphazard collection of other bands' riffs. Each song is well-crafted, the musicians are on par with their contemporaries, and the album will finish well before you expect it to. That is always the mark of a good album. In particular, I'd recommend the songs “Hung, Drawn and Quartered” and “Burning Casket”.

Death Shall Rise - 90%

dyingseraph84, June 13th, 2010

Cancer is a relatively unknown death metal band hailing from Great Britain. Death Shall Rise is their best album in my opinion, and should be heard by all old school death metal fans out there. This music is very simple and heavy. James Murphy provides some tasteful guitar solos on this album and really makes it memorable.

Cancer is heavily influenced by such death metal pioneers as, Possessed, Obituary, Death, Autopsy, and Massacre. Like I stated above, the music doesn't really have a lot of technical flair to it. The production is heavy and loud, it reminds me of a more bass heavy Leprosy.

The album starts off with one of it's strongest tracks in the form of 'Hung, Drawn, and Quartered'. This song is a beast, and is sure to instigate headbanging within seconds! Some other notable songs are, 'Burning Casket', 'Death Shall Rise', and 'Internal Decay'. These aforementioned songs have a solid mix of speed and heavy groove.

When I say groove, I do not mean the metalcore or post thrash style of groove. The grooves here are much in the vein of Celtic Frost, they are very driving. The drum work is laid back and not too impressive. Carl Stokes basically does the same pattern over and over again. The guitar solos are great, James Murphy and John Walker trade solos throughout the entire album.

There really isn't much more to say here. This is a really good album that needs to be heard. If you are an old school death metal fan, and you do not have this then I strongly suggest you pick this album up.