Cianide - Death, Doom, and Destruction
(Album of the Week 6-22-29-2008)
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Sequestered almost harmlessly at the bottom of a recent haul was a promo for ‘Death, Doom and Destruction.’ Scoring the only Cianide recording I do not own is akin to surviving a marvelous humanity slaughtering nuclear holocaust, then subsequently discovering I am immortal thanks to radiation. Sure getting ‘Death, Doom and Destruction’ in our modern Internet era isn’t that difficult, and I have heard the album several times, but I never actually owned the CD. Besides, settling for shitty soulless burns or downloads wasn’t an option. Therefore, I gotta say “thanks” to the smart Metal loving people at Razorback Records for reissuing a fabulous album that all Metal fans should own.
Let’s get the necessary band comparisons out of the way: Cianide is a band influenced, like all great Death Metal bands with integrity, by Hellhammer/Celtic Frost, Venom, Master, Repulsion, Autopsy, and Morbid Angel. Those bands all played Death Metal right in the early days, and Cianide continues the tradition. Every fucking track on ‘Death, Doom and Destruction’ is crude, vulgar, and heavier than a 10-ton log crushing a chest. Each track is a tasty syringe full of pure riffage played amazingly catchy for filthy addiction. Hooks are superb, vocals are terrific deep grunts, and creepy crawly listless Doom segments are memorably mashing. Yes, ‘Death, Doom, and Destruction’ is the epitome of Death Metal, and Cianide execute dynamically without being virtuoso hacks masturbating their instruments or vocal delivery to be inanely technical, stupidly brutal, or pathetically sick.
Worth mentioning is that this reissue has been remastered. Now, I don’t have the original to draw a compare and contrast, but goddamn it, this album sounds utterly gritty. Actually the production is irreverent. By “irreverent” I mean ‘Death, Doom and Destruction’ is an LP that spits in the eye of bullshit trends. It is music that breaks petty rules, doesn’t give a fuck about consensus thinking, and eschews the pretensions of what fools perceive as cool. Cianide, do not give a fuck what you think, and this feeling runs deeply out of each instrument and vocal pattern right into listeners ears with unadulterated anthemic Death Metal loving irreverence.
As usual Razorback Records has done a great job with packaging. ‘Death, Doom and Destruction’ has new cover art, but it effectively mirrors the dread associated with war and religious zealotry. Killer too is that the original album cover is on the back of the booklet so that fans can change out the cover periodically. The booklet is complete with lyrics, pictures showing off how righteously ugly Cianide look, and the back panel is a nicely penned slice of nostalgia from Mark Sawickis-AKA-Mark Impetigo. Even the fact that the booklets graphics/pictures are in black and white is wonderfully conceptual by creating visual tension between music and destructive imagery. Completing this mandatory reissue of ‘Death, Doom and Destruction’, is the addition of the bands 1998 ‘The Truth’ - 7'' EP.
Cianide is a band bellowing “INDIVIDUALITY” in a world of automatons and clones rambling politically correct dialog instead of truth. ‘Death, Doom, and Destruction’ is an album as musically important in our immediate future as it will be 1,000 years from now, when some muck covered astronaut jams it while terraforming one of Jupiter’s moons. Cianide prove that old school Death Metal will never die even when it is bent for worse or better by modern contemporaries. Now, if all the above written truthful assertions don’t get you eager to buy ‘Death, Doom and Destruction’, then you’re better off dead cause you definitely are not a Metal fan!
By Mike Lidia
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Scott Carroll – Guitar
Mike Perun - Bass, Vocals
Andy Kuizin – Drums
Jim Bresnahan – Guitar
Rating: 9.5
Record Label: Lost Horizon Records
(Re-released in 2008 by Razorback Records)
Release Date: 1997
Song List:
1. Rage War
2. This World Will Burn
3. Metal Never Bends
4. Envy And Hatred
5. Salvation
6. The Power To Destroy
7. Deadly Spawn
8. (We Are The) Doomed
The Truth - 7'' EP 1998
(Lost Horizon Records)
9. The Truth
10. The Dying Truth
Band Website: Cianide
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