CANCER
The Sins Of Mankind
(Cyclone Empire Records)
44:08min

CANCER from the UK are one of the classic old school but in my opinion still underrated bands. The fact, that Cyclone Empire hooked up with the guys to re-release their first three classic albums is proof enough, that these albums can be considered as all-time classics in the Death / Thrash Metal genre. After their really successful second album "Death Shall Rise" with the brilliant guitar work of James Murphy, who helped them out on lead guitar and sadly has not become a permanent member due to other commitments and the distance to the US, CANCER replaced this vacant space with guitarist Barry Savage. Barry’s skills were not to compare with the skills of James Murphy, but he did a decent job on this album. His background was just another and less classic Death Metal than James Murphy’s. Also this time, they recorded again in the UK and not at Morrisound and these facts made this album turn into a more thrashy direction (again), what really sounded great, listening to the material with some distance now. The decision, to include more Thrash Metal in their sound again, was a difficult one at that time, as Death Metal was very popular with killer tour packages and selling very well while Thrash Metal record sales declined. Even KREATOR changed their sound in the mid 90s. CANCER worked hard on the material and focused more and more on the technical parts and avoided to concentrate just on speed or aggression or writing simple Death Metal tunes. Riffs and solos were worked out very carefully and they have put a lot of work in the arrangements of the songs, especially into the changes of the rhythm guitar. Their sound had only developed fractional, but the material turned away from classic Death Metal again. The high quality of the material and their hard work on this album finally brought them a record deal with East West Records for their fourth album. The material still is outstanding today. The technical leads, technical and fast drum work and the slowly played rhythm guitars, often crossing the borders between Death and Thrash Metal combined with the aggressive vocals of John Walker make this album still an enjoyable journey and it is really worth, to spin all the three classics again. The reissues feature some liner notes from the band and 2 bonus tracks each (in this case, demo recordings without vocals, showing a more Death Metal influenced side of the tracks on "The Sins Of Mankind") and all albums will be available on vinyl as well, limited to 500 copies each album. More info at www.facebook.com/cancerbanduk, www.cyclone-empire.com

Michael Kujawska

Michael Kujawska

Related reviews / interviews:
CANCER - Shadow Gripped (Rick Peart)
CANCER - To The Gory End (Michael Tak)
CANCER - Death Shall Rise (Thomas Meyer)
CANCER - Interview (Rick Peart)
CANCER - Interview (Michael Kujawska)

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