Stigmata of Life

Dino – guitarist and participant in making whole material said that music included on second Spinal Cord full-length album is peculiar mixture of thrash with strong dose of death. Well, I must say that I haven’t heard much elements of thrash metal. Firstly I thought that this album is representative of technical death but after few minutes I had to change my mind:

From the beginning we hear massive drums and riffs and after first song we know that it will be very difficult publication. First track discouraged me to the next songs mostly because I had humor for not complicated music into which we can’t rate Spinal Cord. But after 3 first minutes it goes more and more friendly to listen. Band to come down a peg or two what made me happy but we still can hear lots of changing rhythms, crazy solos and changeable vocals - by skills of musicians the band is certainly above the average.

Every change of rhythm and solo is well-thought-out and there’s no place for accidental sound. Everything is perfectly planned but we can have different opinion after few first listens. As to solos I must say that they are very interesting. Intelligently plaited into avalanche of sound. And they are probably the strongest part of Stigmata of Life. Really they are incredible.

There are actually two complicated songs (“Burn Them All” and “Ramirez”) but almost in every track we can hear progressive elements which sometimes makes music more pleasantly but mostly they are like there were from nowhere and they doesn’t fit to the whole material. But maybe I have mistaken impression. This is very good album. But I've got used to it after several listens. I think that this is the main problem in this release – it’s not comprehensible for normal metal fan. I have to had strong persistence to finish listening this album.

Time to say something about lyrics. They are very good. Written by Ela Dziadek and based on Barneys ideas. There’s everything in them – aggression, war, politic, society. And that’s what I like :)

If you like challenges or extreme death this album is for.