Tower of Spite

Frank Healy, I know we have never met each other. Yet if you read this review, please be aware of the fact that I want you to play the soundtrack on my funeral! Hell yes, is there any relevant punk-influenced or otherwise somehow ugly metal album from the UK without this guy at the bass guitar? Benediction, Sacrilege, Memoriam and Cerebral Fix, this dude seems to be everywhere. Okay, Napalm Death must be mentioned in this context, but he even had a short guest role in this legendary formation. Only Bolt Thrower does not show up in his CV, because he is a real gentleman and so it was a matter of course that he let Jo Bench go ahead. Anyhow, Healy is in his element on "Tower of Spite". A great portion of punk vibes is combined with some speedy, double bass fueled rockets and some maliciously creeping monsters. There is never too much velocity, blast beats do not occur. Many songs march rather stoically onwards, but despite this fact, they spread a punk-like, snotty attitude.

As far as I know, the debut of the band had not much in common with metal. But here the dudes prove evidence that they can forge resilient riffs, abrasive guitars and dark leads. The album's artwork matches the atmosphere of the homogeneous song material very well. The less rapid instrumental parts lie in close proximity to Sacrilege's fantastic sophomore work "Within the Prophecy". Yet it goes without saying that the raw and, well, spiteful voice of Simon Forrest cannot be compared with that of Linda "Tam" Simpson. He is full of dirty charm, no brilliant singer, but his approach characterizes the aura of the song sustainably. Nevertheless, it is almost logical that the album ends with a half-instrumental cover song of Sacrilege. (By the way: a great band, but can anybody undo the release of "Turn Back Trilobite"?)

The album does not look for friends and exactly this is appealing. The minimalist yet extremely effective "Unity for Who?" has this provocative touch which is always helpful to express an outlaw mentality. Furthermore, this short track leads smoothly to the first "full" song and this transition reflects the compact uniformity of the songs. All of them reach a good level, because the non-filigree riffs roll over the listener and the vast majority of the relatively little tempo changes are dead on target. Cerebral Fix leave a characteristic note of their own. Without polarizing blatantly, the band has written a love-it-or-hate-it album. Of course, one can say that the constantly pounding double bass is not overly exciting, but from my point of view, its prominent role lends the album an extra quantum power. Indeed, drummer Andy Baker, another veteran from Sacrilege, does not come off badly with respect to the production. By the way, I am speaking of a dense production, powerful and compact.

The output avoids the so-called "Testament album pattern" ( = five times top, five times flop) with great ease. It does not happen to me often, but I like each and every track on "Tower of Spite" and therefore I cannot recommend special highlights. Nevertheless, "Culte des Mortes" bundles the strengths of the somehow rebel formation for the final time, the robust riffing, the smooth flow, the comprehensible design, the brutal overall impression. So if you have the chance to get a copy of this bastard at a fair price, don't hesitate. It is no milestone, but a very, very honest work with a pretty casual touch. And don't forget that guys like Frank Healy deserve our support.

“…come with me to Midian, halfway to Hell, north of Heaven…”

The noticeable inclusion of slower segways that were often caught adrift on the UK band’s ’88 debut Life Sucks…And Then You Die can easily be attributed to the overhaul of its timekeeping foundation, which replaces bassist Steve Watson and drummer Adrian “Ade” Jones with Frank Healy (who also plays guitar on the bonus Sacrilege (UK) cover, available on the CD pressing) and Andy Baker. What couldn’t be predicted, however, is this fresh foundation inexplicably deconstructing most of the furious and fast morsels that once upon a time had all but dominated the debut’s highlight reel.

A full whirl around this ten-tracker proves this new renovation (and not just Healy and Baker, but the band’s construction site as a whole) has not only cemented its soft dirt spots beyond most expectations, but has suddenly and subtlety taken control of nearly the entire album. In addition to gainfully reconstructing the act’s moderately-paced paraphernalia, as if unsatisfied in that role alone, it also secured a near-monopoly on the building blocks used in assembling Tower of Spite, and with its completion has markedly reduced the dangerous vibration that once overran power struggles and the fear of death at the end of a sucky life.

Overlooking the outlying lands beyond the tower’s peak, gone is all but a sonic glimpse or two of hardcore and thrash heritage that had together woven the band’s crossover blanket. With X – X = 0, they may as well be starting over, which may seem to leave Cerebral Fix in an odd spot. Style-wise it’s a mid to moderately-paced chug-fest that shares an undeniably common interest in dirge-like trudging (“Feast of the Fools”, much of Clive Barker-dedicated “Quest for Midian”, small chunklings of the title track, “Circle of the Earth”, and around half of “Chasten of Fear”) in a spirit somewhere near debut-era Paradise Lost and less stuck in the muck Autopsy for quite the change in pace.

Replacing yesteryear’s hardcore thrash essence are strips of fairly greased, though light on seasoning speed metal (mostly generic “Injecting Out”, “Forgotten Genocide” [wherein lies the rarified sole olden crossover vestige], maybe “Unity For Who?”, top draw “Enter the Turmoil” and the other thrash-savory half of “Chasten of Fear”) which is apt enough to persuade these runners into the earthen drink to swim through the lp’s newly-strewn tar parts to the next song.

Clandestinely distributed are less than a handful of Tony Warburton’s solos which are unmasked in “Quest for Midian” and waning moments of finale “Culte Des Mortes (Part 1)” and whose conscious sincerity evades the sepsis and pooling sweat for that touch of humanity that in similarly metallic slabs is often left to extinction. Elsewhere, still snarled similarly to the debut are Simon Forrest’s pipes, one of the few past tidbits continually serving hot, steaming gruel that hadn't been buried under the tower’s dungeon floor.

A band reinventing itself usually belies some sort of mainstream attraction, but with Cerebral Fix it seems like a simple swerving of interest to a much less coveted alternate crossover. I can dig it overall, though unleashing a few choice high-octane goat-chasers that they could've hidden away in the shed until needed couldn't have hurt either, eh?

So in 1990, we had a plethora of influential and unique sounding death and thrash coming from all over the world. But more specifically, the DM scene was truly expanding and developing. At the time, death metal was highly thrash-influenced with bands like Benediction, Death, Malevolent Creation, Napalm Death, Massacre, Master etc. And with Tower of Spite by Cerebral Fix, you truly get unique blend of death and thrash.

Instrumentally, the album reeks of the UK death and hardcore scenes with it's gritty atmosphere and raw-styled instrumentation. The musicianship is simplistic with absolutely no flashiness. Track after track, the band churns out riff after riff of brutality. Stylistically, their sound can be compared to early Benediction, Bolt Thrower, Napalm Death, Nuclear Assault, Obituary, Heresy, Cryptic Slaughter...you get the idea. Their sound is heavily simplistic, but diverse throughout their playing with heavily-contrasted riffs ranging from a mid-paced death metal riffs in the style of Bolt Thrower or Obituary.. to speed metal like early Kreator....and then some UK hardcore thrown in the mix.

Definitely worth a listen...especially to fans of early death metal and the late period thrash/crossover styled bands. You'll find a very unique sound and some catchy and tasteful riffs.

Cerebral Fix really stands out among the other UK thrash bands as one of the better and one of the darker. Actually I’d say it’s the grittiest of them all. The way they’ve traded the traditional speed for heaviness makes ‘em sound rather evil and probably better too. As they on all their records have tended to get rather monotonous it’s at least good they didn’t do monotonous fast but instead monotonous slow (slow for thrash that is) so that their riffs and bass lines really grows and that their roaring, chainsaw qualities really can be heard and their gruffly vocalist is able to make his vocals even more biting and stingy evil. Sometimes more speed could’ve helped out, as some songs features the same thing over and over again – but slowly.

Released in the same year as Rust in Peace and Coma of Souls, Cerebral Fix still did good enough to pride themselves. While this is conform, uniform whatever and the structures are far from complex, it’s good. It’s catchy, pounding and evil. Also Cerebral Fix really was distinctive, they set themselves apart with this rather unique style. One could describe Cerebral Fix like Dark Angel minus most of the dirt, most of the riffs, the speed and add a punchy rhythm. Or one could sum it up with a damn good album if not for the repetitiveness to it.