Convicted

Cryptic Slaughter’s debut ‘Convicted’ of 1986 is a classic example of a great album released at the wrong time. Things moved pretty quickly in the underground back then. 1986 was the heyday of thrash metal, hardcore punk was well established, the crossover style had been defined by D.R.I.’s ‘Dealing With It’ released the previous year, and grindcore was set to take seize the ‘Most Extremist Crown’ from these creatively fruitful movements. And if ‘Dealing With It’ explored the very limits of the expressive scope of crossover – from the ultra-primal and aggressive, to longer structured works, to the emotive and surprisingly thoughtful – then Cryptic Slaughter’s ‘Convicted’ expands on one very specific aspect this: outright thrashing rage. If it had been released just two years earlier I think we would be looking at this album as a genre defining classic.

But it wasn’t, and we’re not. Taken on it’s own merits it is still crossover at its finest. Production is the perfect balances of rawness incarnate with enough power to the drums to give the thing real impact. Vocals stick to an audible punky shout, sometimes calling to mind Die Kruezen in their mastery of control and chaos at the higher end of the vocal range. Drums smash through an array of blast-beats, with plenty of strength to the double bass that provides much needed depth to the mix. The guitars are harsh and shrill, working their way through lightning fast power chord progressions that gradually coalesce into a logical whole that supervenes on the chaos this music revels in. Leads occasionally rise above the fray in the form of unadulterated fretboard abuse.

There are elements of heavy metal present in some of these riffs. Hinting as they do at more durable and fundamental musical ideas usually outside of punk’s remit. But hints they remain. Due to the micro-song nature of this album they are cut short to make way for the next burst of chaos, the next hardcore riff. But far from being a detriment, these moments stand as a reminder to the purpose and strength of this music. The fixed moment in time, the catalyst of pure chaos that must destroy before others can begin to create in its wake. ‘Convicted’ takes this form of punk as far as it can go in terms of its speed, its extremity, its aggression, and its revelry in the primal. Take it any further and we probably move into grindcore territory. As mentioned, this is probably the albums major downfall, in that it both foreshadows the grindcore to come but was also completely outshined by it in the eyes of posterity.

In the 1980s underground music evolved quickly. The pre-internet age meant that movements would quickly coalesce around a small number of focal points, defined by a handful bands, labels, magazines, and studios. Cryptic Slaughter focused in one the most aggressive aspect of crossover and performed it to perfection on ‘Convicted’, to the point where they managed to foreshadow a lot of extreme metal to come. But given how much activity there was in 1986, they were either ahead of or behind the times depending how you look at it.

Originally published at Hate Meditations

This was 1986, arguably the year where metal was at its peak and evolved into more and more extreme forms. Crossover thrash specifically was taking form right around this time, evolving from primitive hardcore punk into a more morbid crossover thrash. Cryptic Slaughter surely delivered a compelling piece of crossover thrash with their debut album. While repetitive at times, it was still quite a different sound at the time as the overall intention of the music was to be as extreme as possible. In fact, if the vocals were actually screamed or guttural in this release, this band could easily pass as grindcore or death/thrash.

The production of the album is actually quite enjoyable and is easily superior to Sodom's debut album which was released this same year. The bass is very audible and particularly good when it has its respective fills. I'd also like to applaud Scott Peterson's endurance and Les Evans' great riffing. The aspect of this album that I enjoy the least is Bill's hardcore punk shrieks, but they definitely fit with the sound that the rest of the band delivers.

In many ways, the whole album seems to be one really long song as the structures of the songs in general are rather formulaic with the drumming in particular not varying as much as it could. I do applaud the way that the sudden changes in pace, such as in "Lowlife", were done, going from high-speed hardcore punk into mid-paced thrash metal riffing. The album's longest tracks, "Nuclear Future" and "Rest in Pain", succeed in giving a round perspective of who Cryptic Slaughter are musically, a crossover thrash band with grindcore drumming.

All in all, Cryptic Slaughter do a really good job to deliver a solid metal album. Their blend of hardcore punk's most extreme form with sudden, slow-paced thrash metal riffs makes this album sound a lot better. Tracks in particular that stand out are Lowlife, State Control, Hypocrite, War to Knife, Rest in Pain, Nuclear Future, Black and White, and the title track. Some of the other tracks didn't do all too much for me. The few complaints I have for this album are essentially minor, just the fact that practically all the songs follow a similar formula and can be repetitive, but this album definitely is worth the listen and is especially recommended to those into thrash.

I do believe they are a pretty good representation of the times.

anyway...

The metal scene, specifically the thrash scene, was pretty well developed by 1986. Slayer had Reign in Blood, Megadeth had Peace Sells...But Who's Buying?, Dark Angel had Darkness Descends, Kreator had Pleasure to Kill... I could go on for a while longer on how many thrash albums were already around at the time, but the point here is that by 1986, the thrash metal spectrum was already pretty large. On one end you have your fun, goofy thrash like Anthrax, your crazy, extreme, blisteringly fast bands like Slayer and Dark Angel, your technically superior thrash like Megadeth, and the really evil stuff by bands like Possessed. and then their was countless average bands all throughout. The point is thrash metal's evolution has come to an end. The next step was death metal, which to come a few years later with Death's Scream Bloody Gore or Morbid Angel's Altars of Madness.Yet despite this, Cryptic Slaughter found a little niche that had a foothold in several of these genres.

Cryptic Slaughter wouldn't fit really in any of these categories. Are they fun and goofy? Not really. They sure have some blazing fast sections, but its not the same type as a Dark Angel or Slayer type band, so their not in that category. Are they technical? Rarely. Are they evil? (catch the Diamond Head reference?) that's another no, they have absolutely no sense of evil about them. Instead, Cryptic Slaughter forged a new genre - crossover, and also to an extent, grindcore. The lyrics are angry and political, the riffing in more of a hardcore punk style than metal, and the drumming frantic and speedy.

Now about Bill Crooks. There is something disturbed about this guy. His frenzied, hellish scream goes by so fast, you can't even tell what he's saying. And his lyrics. He was only 17 at the time this album was released, and yet his political views were already full of fire, and these views are expressed in his lyrics. Sometimes the songs express a misanthropic, Orwellian view of human nature and government, and then sometimes he just rants about how messed up American society is, and often relates this to the cold war. Whereas some may perceive these lyrics as angst ridden, typical anti-American government garbage, he actually does make some very good points. During the 1980s the cold war was still raging between Russia and America, and both countries were spending large amounts of money on military, in fact this resulted in the period during the Reagan administration as having the largest US peacetime military build up in history. Both countries had so many weapons and arms at the time, Russia was spending 25% of its gross national product on militaristic build up at the cost of consumer goods and investing in civilian sectors. The lyrics in the song "Nation of Hate" express these anti military spending views - "Africa's dying, why should we care? / We’ve got our own problems, no money to spare / We have to buy nuclear bombs so we’ll prove / With no future coming, we’ve got none to lose". And then there are further anti war/drafting rants, such as in the song "War to the Knife", which is a verbal dart aimed at the drafting policy that was established during the Vietnam war. Many of these songs introduce these seemingly simple political ideas that in fact have a deeper meaning than what they appear to be.

Les Evans is the sole guitarist that plays on this album. He was on the younger end of the spectrum of other thrash metal guitarists - he was only 19 when this came out, compared to Kirk Hammett (24), Scott Ian (also 24), Dave Mustaine (25), Kerry King (22), Gary Holt (22) etc... notice a trend? Les Evans certainly isn't as refined as some of these older guys, who have undeniably had more experience playing guitar, and this could be the reason sometimes he sounds really sloppy. Despite this though, his solos are awesome, for lack of a better word. They evoke a Slayer-ish vibe, but also a distant resemblance to Megadeth. Where he fails at playing riffs, his warped, twisted solos always enhance the songs. As demonstrated by his solos, he is a skilled guitarist. Sloppy at times, but definitely good. Whether he uses this skill or not, I don't know. The riffs are definitely fast, but simple. And similar. Every song on here is pretty much the same, and you can definitely hear some recycled riffs and solos throughout. Even if you only heard one song on this album, there is a pretty good chance you could form a fair opinion about it because that's how similar the songs are.

Now about Scott Peterson. This guy was young. Being only 16 when this came out, he was surely one of the youngest drummers in metal at the time. Of course there was also Witold "Vitek" Kieltyka, who was only 13 when his bands first demo came out (although that wasn't until 1997). Point being though, Scott Peterson is not a very good drummer. Every song contains roughly the same paced, primitive blast beats. And there not used sparingly and effectively, such as Pete Sandoval, they are used in every single song. If your going to destroy the drumkit, at least do it well, such as Gene Hoglan on "Darkness Descends", or Scott Peterson suffers from this disease that plauges many metal drummers - repetitiveness. Although like I said before, he doesn't have a lot to work around. The rest of the bands not really changin song pattern or structure either, sometimes from song to song their not even changing riffs. One of the rare exceptions he changes from hyper blasting mode is the short drum intro a the beginning of "Lowlife", where even with a simple pattern like that he manages to stumble a little bit.

Rob Nicholson is bass on this album. Like 99% of bass players, he's hardly noticeable. With the exception of precious few fills, you can't really hear him at all. There is the intro to "State Control", but that hardly constitutes his skill, as the intro itself sucks and isn't very extravagant. If he's not doing a lame fill such as that, hes blending in with the guitar.

Yes, this record and band were pioneers in the crossover field, but was it very good? The songs were all very similar, sloppily played, repetitive, and none of the songs really featured any catchy choruses or extremely memorable riffs. And the overall average skill of the band members was much lower than many of their metal contemporaries. So the answer is no, this album's not real good. It's intense and fast, but it's not refined or memorable, it's sloppy and messy. Whereas Cryptic Slaughter may of brought something new to the table of metal, it really wasn't that good. Whereas many people call this a landmark, everything that's on here had really been done before. This may contradict what I said earlier about Cryptic Slaughter forging a new genre, but think about it. The political lyrics - there was a whole slew of punk bands that already had that. The crazy, maddening speed? A large number of the thrash bands preceding this release have already made relentlessly fast songs. The blastbeats and frantic drumming? Just to give one example, their was a song called "Death Metal" that was released a year earlier, that already featured some of this style of drumming, and in that song it was done much better. The tremolo filled, face melting solos? Slayer, Possessed, Megadeth, Exodus... thats already been done to. So Cryptic Slaughter may have taken a few of these elements from thrash metal and added them with hardcore punk, but thats it. The only innovation Cryptic Slaughter can really claim to make is that they were one of the first bands to fuse hardcore punk and thrash metal. Both of those genres like I have said before also were already well developed by 1986.

So while this album is fairly decent, I wouldn't really buy it if I were you. There is nothing mindblowing about this album that would make you say something like "This is awesome!". This album is nice for a listen or two, but after that you may as well use it as a coaster.

Few bands elicit a bigger response in punk/metal circles than Cryptic Slaughter-the mere mention of the name immediately evokes other 'cult classic' bands (metal, punk, or otherwise) such as Blue Cheer, Buzzov*en, The Plasmatics, The Crumbsuckers, Carnivore, etc. They retain a rabid fanbase comprised of long-time fans from their early inception to newer converts turned on to them via bands they influenced such as...let's just say that a lot of grindcore bands seriously owe their ass to Cryptic Slaughter.

Despite the fact that the sheer velocity and aggression of Cryptic Slaughter's music was arguably an early purveyor of the genre that became grindcore they are almost always lumped into the 'crossover' sub-genre-and that's fine, because as a straight grindcore band they lack many of the genre's cliches,especially in the vocal deptartment, to the point where it is extremely difficult to label them as such. From a crossover point of view, they are without equal-they blow contemporaries like D.R.I. and Suicidal Tendencies out of the water in terms of speed, aggression and sheer versatility, but never could seem to gather the same succes and recognition of those two aforementioned bands, who later went on to major labels and high profile tours (numerous Clash of the Titans in D.R.I.'s case, and a stint with Metallica in the mid-90's in Suicidal's).But who needs to be on monochromatic tours like that when you can share the stage with bands as diverse as Negative Approach and Possesed (which Cryptic Slaughter did as evinced by the reproduced flyers in the re-release of 'Convicted' ).Like the amorphous alien monster in John Carpenter's 'The Thing' , Cryptic Slaughter is a many-tentacled, many-headed mutate-they take the snotty punk vocal delivery of Circle Jerks,the socio-political commentary of Discharge and Crass, the clean 80's guitar tone of thrash paragons Exodus and Testament, Battalion of Saints meets Venom riffing, and the blistering drumbeats of Siege and Repulsion throw it in a blender and set it on 'high'.

The end result is their stuning debut 'Convicted', which could easily be considered a landmark of several genres-punk, hardcore, thrash, grindcore.I won't bore you with a track by track summary but the whole album, if not the whole Cryptic Slaughter ethos is encapsulated in two of the best tracks off this album, namely 'Low Life' and 'State Control.' The first one stars of with a drum pattern that would not be out of place in an Exploited or Chaos U.K. record and is soon followed by a catchy riff on the style of Discharge but better-the overall production is very good, very stereo. The vocal delivery is rapid-fire, sometimes sounding like he's trying to catch up with the music, And then that great,great chorus-the drums are like a hailstorm and the bass is audible, not buriedi in the mix, superb and constistent throughout.'State Control' is shorter but equally strong. It starts out with a nice bass riff followed by a mid-tempo drumbeat. Suddenly the bass kicks in and it's on. Sure the songs are short but it actually lends to the strength of the songs-this is punk (or a variation thereof) after all. There are a few bonus features as well-there is a live version of 'Low Life' from a show in Houston that is even faster than the studio version-much to Cryptic Slaughter's credit. Conclusion-get it if you can-Relapse have re-released it much to the joy of record collectors everywhere. It is a nice snapshot of an era which resonates today and which has influenced other terrific bands like Napalm Death (who cover them on 'Leaders Not Followers'),Bloodwolf, Ed Gein, etc.

This album is, in my opinion, one of the best crossover thrash records ever released. The drums are fast, the vocals are screamed and the guitar riffs are always extremely catchy. Now, I know many will say that Money Talks is the better album, and in some ways it is, but Convicted, for it's time, was some of the fastest and loudest thrash ever! Not that Money Talks isn't fast and loud, but it sounds almost exactly like Convicted (speed, song structures, riffs, etc).


I'm a simple guy, though, so if they both sound the same, I really don't mind. As long as it's fast, I'll listen to it. While songs like "M.A.D.", "Black and White" and "Nuclear Future" make this album worth the 15 bucks you'd have to cough up for it, songs like "Sudden Death" make this album a bit iffy for people who are into more technical / well played albums.


As this has been mentioned many times, it is safe to say that the drummer was out of time more than a couple times on this album. Many times a song will go on for longer than it should have at the listener's expense! And you might not even listen the album the whole way through! Yes, there are many bad things about Convicted, but there are so many good things about it as well.


In all, this album may have some bad moments, but that does not mean you shouldn't get it! Considering the historical significance, the speed and pure ferocity of the band and the originality of this record (maybe it was original at the time, but still...), I'd say buy it.

Hailing from California, Cryptic Slaughter played a brand of super-fast speedcore that was at ahead of its time, even if it was only by about six months or so. With bands like Heresy, Siege and D.R.I. joining their thrash and death metal cousins by playing performing at the fastest imaginable tempos the human anatomy could stand performing (let alone hearing) the race was on for bands of every extreme music stripe to dive into said fray. And due to their monomaniacal and proficient execution of said tempos, interspersed with decent chuggy metal riff breakdowns, Cryptic Slaughter enjoyed a decent sized following.


Thus, their debut album Convicted won instant kudos from fans of the fast, but some pretty derisive comments from those unimpressed with the sound. Debate aside, there’s little doubt that the album in question is packed end to end with very fast stuff topped by socio-political lyrical observations, and is a fun listen. Drummer Scott Peterson is easily the standout player for the obvious reason of his remarkable endurance, but singer Bill Crooks displays a snarly but clear hardcore punk vocal style that’s miles away from the growling noises that would so become standard for the grindcore that would soon replace speedcore as sub-genre du jour.


Some of the songs, “Sudden Death,” “Lowlife,” and “State Control” actually manage some very strong riffs and stand out, and “Rest In Pain” is in particular a blast of furious speed that really makes an impact. Good stuff that’s now quite dated but fun nevertheless, Convicted is a snapshot of hardcore history that’s all but extinct today. From here, Cryptic would make a few more albums, none of which were as strong as this, but hardcore fans and speedcore lunatics could do worse than to seek ‘em out.

Cryptic Slaughter… a name which bring back old memories when it comes to furious, hectic, eighties’ thrash core/crossover and perhaps, at the same time, a name which doesn’t ring a bell with the younger mob of nowadays’ metal heads.

Cryptic Slaughter was one of those bands which stood at the cradle of the music we now call grindcore and Relapse found it time to re-release the first two albums of the American quartet, “Convicted” and “Money Talks” (see for review elsewhere in this issue). And here they are. Besides the official records one gets a lot of bonus material, but I will come to that later.
“Convicted” was and is a hurricane of fourteen blistering, over-the-top “crossover” tracks, recorded in 1986. In those days, Cryptic Slaughters’ speed was knocking people off their feet, but I can see why people nowadays would find it not too impressive, especially when one hears the often messy instrumentation.

But do bear in mind that these tracks are a trip down memory lane. They’re raw, stripped of every superfluous luxury in an attempt to drive home the bands’ social-critical lyrics (by means of the oh-so eighties ‘too much words in a sentence’ method) as effectively as possible. And it still has its’ charms.
Fans of old-fashioned thrash core: check this band out. You’ll get a lot of bonus material such as a five-track demo and four live tracks.

Well, Relapse has done it again, another awesome re-release. They've done it with Human Remains, Repulsion, God Macabre, and now with Cryptic Slaughter. Cryptic Slaughter's first two albums, Convicted and Money Talks have gotten the expected Relapse re-release treatment (guess what I'll be reviewing next week). What we have on Convicted is the complete album plus a wonderful selection of bonus tracks, including the infamous 5 track Life in the Grave demo and four tracks recorded live in Houston in 1988, along with cool liner notes that give a dandy little bio of the album and the early history of the band.

For those who don't know, Cryptic Slaughter were one of the first and most influential crossover bands, and Convicted first came out in the summer of '86 on the then up-and-coming Metal Blade label. Having already gathered a significant fan base through the famous tape-trading circuit back in the day, Convicted must have surprised even the most hardcore of metal and punk fans. Combining the thrashing fury of Slayer and the anti-establishment politics of Discharge and other hardcore bands, Cryptic Slaughter were one of the trend setters in over the top speed metal/punk bands. Even though I was barely two when this album was first released, I cannot help but marvel at the intensity of this record. It is ridiculously fast paced, relentless, and raw. And that is just the debut. Of course the true treat of these kinds of releases are the demos and live tracks, and the Life in Grave demo does not disappoint. Sounding like Venom on speed, the demo is just mind blowing. Slayer wasn't this tough at the time, and no band that I'm aware of could thrash this fast or this hard in 1985.

Even though it is impossible for me to truly understand the historical importance of this record (I could barely walk when it came out) I can wholeheartedly say that this still kicks ass. Horns up to Relapse for bringing a long out of print classic back to the attention of the metal masses.

Originally Published @ www.metaljudgment.com (c) 2004