CRYPTIC SLAUGHTER
Convicted / Money Talks
(Relapse Records)
54:17min / 60:48min

Hell, seems like Relapse have decided to unveil some old forgotten true cult stuff to the masses! After PENTAGRAM and REPULSION, Santa Monica’s CRYPTIC SLAUGHTER have received the Relapse reissue treatment and again they did a kicking ass job. Now you boys who think that CANNIBAL CORPSE and the likes are the fastest combos on earth and think that nothing fast existed before those uninspired bands appeared, check out CRYPTIC SLAUGHTER and their brand of ultrafast mixture of Metal and Punk! "Convicted" was a non stop 14 tunes aural assault with Scott Peterson’s drumming coming out as particularly impressive (no 10 seconds crappy blast beats, just non stop ultra fast drumming!) even if his timing wasn’t that good at times to say the least but the guy was raging! ‘Little World’, ‘Rage To Kill’, ‘Rest In Pain’ etc. remain Deathcore classics, non stop metallic riffing mixed with angry Punkish vocals from Bill Crooks. As bonus on "Convicted", you get the famous "Life In Grave" ’85 demo which started everything back then for the band and just for the totally raging song ‘Necessity Supreme’ you must get this CD – it’s that great! – and there’s also some live tracks from ’88 with later material. "Money Talks" was released in ’87 and the Hardcore influences were more upfront, the material not being as effective for most of it and sounding quite childish at times as far as the riffs goes, still stuff like ‘Could Be Worse’, ‘Menace To Mankind’ or ‘Tables Are Turned’ need to be heard, it’s just that the Hardcore / simpler direction was becoming too strong, it was my opinion back then and 16 years later this feeling remains the same. Bonus stuff on this one come in the shape of rehearsal tracks for the 3rd album (weakest of all 3 from the original line up) and numerous live tracks from CRYPTIC SLAUGHTER’s last shows in ’88. I wish that they had used soundboard recordings from their earlier / more raging days such as the one from Ruthies Inn 20 / 12 / 85, but I suppose they were prouder of their later stuff. Add to this a great booklet / layout job for both, definitively two recommended releases from an act who were labelled so rightly as one of the fastest band on this planet back then with the likes of INSANITY, NYC MAYHEM, early WEHRMACHT and GENOCIDE. For those who purchase both CDs directly from Relapse (www.relapse.com) will get a bonus CRYPTIC SLAUGHTER 7" featuring cover tunes that the band did in live situations back in the day – it’s just too bad that they omitted the great VENOM / SLAYER covers that they were doing in their early days.

Laurent Ramadier

Laurent Ramadier

Related reviews / interviews:
CRYPTIC SLAUGHTER - Interview (Laurent Ramadier)

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