Grindpeace

This act are a product of the influx of creativity and genius that captured the Italian death metal scene in the late-90’s/early-00’s, and produced some of the greatest technical/progressive metal outfits ever: Gory Blister, Coram Lethe, Psychofagist, Aydra, Karnak (their extension Goldenseed as well), Murder Therapy, etc. CC differed from the batch mostly due to their penchant for including less restrained grindcore elements into their death metal dish although there was nothing overtly outrageous akin to the early Napalm Death atrocities, for example; it was highly sophisticated, technical stuff even on the marginally less polished debut which came out a few months after the Czechs T.O.O.H.’s “From Higher Will”, the ultimate technical grind/death hybrid, the highest point in the annals of extreme (un)controlled musical chaos.

The sophomore boasted much better production qualities, and with an increased musical swagger, more influences from other styles, and more complex labyrinthine structures the band nearly hit the top although grindcore wasn’t such a tangible presence anymore regardless of the title. On the album reviewed here it doesn’t quite come back with full force, but the band obviously prefer slightly misleading album-titles, also showing their infatuation with their roots this way. “Necropolis Pt.1” is an awesome opener also being way longer than the staple material featured on the guys’ works, lasting for over 5-min. Not to worry as the chaos is complete with sharp chainsaw-like riffs flying from all sides, racing with the speed of light, with frequent slower breakdowns creating a lot of drama alongside more moderate thrashy sections this eventful cavalcade supervised by screamy deathy vocals that nearly reach the point of hysteria at times, changing the pitch from lower guttural to higher black-ish in no time, adding more to the over-the-top dramatic colouring of this composition. It’s interesting to note that despite the presence of the traditional short outbursts the band continue to stick to longer, more complex cuts one of which is “B.B.Q.”, a great reminder of Carcass’ legendary “Necroticism…” with the twisted riffage and the abrupt time and tempo shifts.

“Big Show” is a more optimistic, more frolic piece with thrash/crossover shades, but “Matando el Torero” cancels those stripped-down attempts with a portion of dazzling super-technical crescendos reaching Necrophagist-esque heights for a while there; the talent exhibited is admirable with some bizarre operatic singing thrown on top of the closing doomy exit. The masterpieces keep coming, though, “The Butcher, Chapter One” another stylish nod to mid-period Carcass with the interesting melodic embellishments and the eccentric twists and turns; and “Human Bucher and the Living Dead” is a fine galloper initially before pounding strokes come crawling, in their turn superseded by superb mazey intricate rifforamas the latter’s complexity relieved by several more linear speedy excursions towards the end. “Subunderground” comes marching with heavy doomy rhythms for a start before the technical wizardry is unleashed although the slower, more standard interruptions are more regular here. The title-track is the last technical “mad hatter” the band playing around with more flexible rhythms changing the pace more frequently, not relying on speed so much.

The band haven’t betrayed their staple sound, and by making some of the tracks longer they’ve managed to focus on more elaborate configurations which to these ears work better than the short electric shocks that seemed to dominate the landscape earlier. Now the blend between the two sides ensures more fun as the delivery does come close to the mentioned T.O.O.H. opus although the side influences here are more, recalling acts like Avulsed and Cattle Decapitation as well, and the Italians’ agenda is not exactly to pummel the listener into a most technical, hyper-puzzling oblivion. The more orthodox moments are always around as well as the obligatory references to the old masters of the hybrid (Carcass, above all) those used wisely without blocking the natural flow of the guys’ individualistic creative stream.

“One of Them”, which appeared four years later, was indeed “one of them”, a logical follow-up to the CC saga which saw the band rising in stature with four high quality albums featured in their resume. One more of the kind would place them right below Sadist in their homeland… yeah, seriously; there’s no reason why a talented bunch like these lads from Brescia, Lombardy, wouldn’t reach the top as long as they don’t get distracted with other projects like Solid Noise, for instance, a power/thrash metal formation with which a few of the guys are involved at present. Not much noise has been made from this camp (one full-length in 2004) yet, and it will stay that way until all the crematoria in Italy, and not only, get filled up with resting in peace cadavers torn to shreds by downpours of cruel, shredding, death/grinding dexterity.

Italy's Cadaveric Crematorium are grinders, as you might have guessed by the title of this, their third full length platter of splatter. But the grinding isn't everything the band does, because 'Grindpeace' offers a lot of twists and turns in its 40+ minutes minced metal mayhem. These guys suffer from some kind of Dissociative identity disorder. Or then they just want to be a bit eccentric. Or perhaps they want to add all of their favourite music styles into one soup? Surely, that is nothing new in grindcore circles.

Brutal, at times technical death metal and grindcore are the sturdy foundation of the band, with hints of rock (even rockabilly), thrash metal, groove metal and whatnot. Cadaveric Crematorium never get as extreme as, say, Alienation Mental, at their fastest/heaviest, but still this is well extreme. Jazzy bursts, operatic tenor vocals (not fucking kidding), Spanish flamenco and such stunts can definitely raise some eyebrows, but do not steal the show. And what's even better, most of them work and especially the tenor vocals give a lot of character for Cadaveric Crematorium. One pointless thingy I can point is 'Non Piangere (Don't Cry)', Metastasi / Guns 'N' Roses cover. At least I don't find it even a tad funny to play a well known song out of tune (just think about Metallica doing Iron Maiden's 'Run to the Hills'). The songs vary from catchy ones to fucked up ones, but I can't complain about the song writing, because it is brutal death metal cum-grindcore after all. Same goes with the stunts department; partly humour, partly true grinding mayhem.

This sounds like a horde of out-of-control juggernauts! Fucking heavy, yet roomy. On bass levels, there is a huge back kick, which makes my ears hurt so sweetly. I mean I can feel it. This sounds similar to a live concert. It's not so clean, but who cares when you can feel it?! The guitars have true bite in them, very rusty and nasty sharp tone that immediately drills into brain. Overall, the soundscape is organic. The vocals are mainly growling, squealing and other inhuman voices usually heard in grindcore, but they just drown shitty, badly written lyrics (of course about killing in multiple ways).

Rare are those humour (or mostly written as "humour" when combining it with metal music) and comic metal albums, that I can or am willing to listen to. Cadaveric Crematorium success in this near-impossible task. This album is a fucking joy to listen to! This does not feel forced and I believe that's why this works. Want some grinding death metal with unusual twists? Then you might want to give 'Grindpeace' a spin, it's worth it.

(originally written for ArchaicMetallurgy.com in 2009)