The early 1990s were really exciting times for those who like their music dark, fast and extreme, as these were the days when Death Metal came on the map of music with unyielding force and deep growls. There were loads of new bands that took the approach of the early pioneers a few steps further and created albums that helped define a whole genre. Among those bands of the pioneering years were a lot that either became forgotten heroes or never got the acclaim that they deserved. One of the latter was CADAVER from the Østfold area of Norway. After four demos, they were, as far as I know, the first Death Metal band from Norway to release an album in 1990. “Hallucinating Anxiety” was put out by short-lived Earache sublabel Necrosis on vinyl and as a split CD with the only CARNAGE album “Dark Recollections”. Maybe this was one of the reasons why the album always flew under the radar, as the album was a more than fine one. The sound of CADAVER was a little bit beyond typical early Death Metal, the three piece refined their music with some Goregrind and even some Proto Black Metal, creating a morbid and unique sound. Two years later, Earache were in charge of the second CADAVER album “…In Pains” that went at least two steps further into morbidity. To me, the album had additional inspiration from technical Thrash Metal, a little bit of Jazz and experimental Post Punk like DIE KREUZEN. Despite this uniqueness, “…In Pains” didn’t blow up as much dust as it deserved and CADAVER was history soon afterwards. Since then, the band was resurrected more than once by guitar player Anders “Neddo” Odden and now consists of him (also singing and playing bass) and Dirk Verbeuren, the Belgian jack of all trades on drums. New stuff was released every once in a while with the album “Hymns Of Misanthropy” being the most recent one. Yet it is not a real new album, but a glimpse into the past of CADAVER. A few years ago, Anders Odden unearthed some unreleased material that was created before they signed with Earache in 1992. Back then, CADAVER had worked on songs that were intended to become their second album and recorded raw versions of these tracks. Among them were songs that weren’t completed at the time and songs that were later reworked for “…In Pains”. Anders Odden reunited the old line-up for a session to make the additional recordings to complete the recordings in order to make their original ideas reality. Listenable Records released this effort “Hymns Of Misanthropy”, which is an album from 1991 completed about 35 years later. Listening to the album, the sound is really awesome, just like it is an entirely fresh recording with a timeless and natural sounding production. Of course the songs are pretty similar to “…In Pains”, maybe a tad less complex, but one can definitely hear the impact bands like VOIVOD or even CYNIC had on the vision of CADAVER. Thus “Hymns Of Misanthropy” will be a real joy to the few who know and love “…In Pains”. Yet anyone into sophisticated and morbid extreme Metal that pushes the boundaries of Death Metal should give “Hymns Of Misanthropy” a chance as well, songs like ‘Maltreated Mind Makes Man Manic’, ‘Nowhere To Hide’, ‘From The Past’ or ‘Death Has To Wait’ (to name a few) are really worth the attention. For more, visit the band at www.facebook.com/cadavertheband or the label at www.facebook.com/listenablerecs