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.

Rating: 6½ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
05/29/2009 13:47