Cross Fade

I discovered this band accidentally while I was looking for some Death SS stuff. For a long time I owned only the opening track, and I could only listen to it over and over again and think about how even if the production is not very powerful, ideas are great, riffs are good and catchy and vocals are brutal and rageful, something between the young Chuck Schuldiner and early Malevolent Creation but with the energy of John Tardy of Obituary.

Later, I listened to all their stuff, and I was a bit surprised. The other tracks of this first demos vary a lot from the first, making me happy: ever catchy, ever brutal vocals but with a lot of personality, and a bit of rapping style in the vocal patterns! If fits greatly the music.
In the last song we find also some clean vocals which remind a bit of later Phil Anselmo... and then the harsh vocals remind a bit of what would have done Slipknot later in the vocals side, but way better and more death metal.

On the instrumental side, the guitarist is skilled enough to provide to some good riffs and solos, but ever bringing that old school raw flavour to the songs. Bass is buried in the mix, but drums are clearly audible, but sometimes they lack of energy, but I guess it is just the production and not the ideas or the drummer himself.

So, basically what we have in this demo is a death metal American band who have played well, have put out good songs with personality, making out riff styles that we find in later more famous bands (Obituary - World Demise, for example) with a slight thrash influence, but reached a cult status or earned a deal. That's a pity that almost no one knows of this band.