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CANCER
Shadow Gripped

Peaceville (2018)
Rating: 7/10

Back with its original line-up is Cancer, the UK trio who wrecked my brain in the early 90s with blood-soaked debut To The Gory End (1990) and its more technical follow-up Death Shall Rise (1991). However, the following years weren’t so kind to the death metallers in spite of 1993’s The Sins of Mankind being a decent affair, so I lost heart with Cancer, and I feel they did too.

In fits and starts they released two more records; 1995’s Black Faith and ten years later the equally disappointing mish-mash known as Spirit In Flames which incorporated groove stylings with a slightly unrecognizable and tepid thrash-cum death expression.

I was unable to stay loyal to such deviations, yet felt rather excited to hear the guys were planning a return. And so here we are again with Cancer’s sixth studio album featuring original members John Walker (vocals and guitar), Ian Buchanan (bass) and Carl Stokes (drums), with a press release for this ten-track affair promising “… a crushing slab of death metal in the classic Cancer style”.

At first glance I didn’t like the cover art, and still don’t, and the album title doesn’t sit right with me either, but onwards and upwards to the most important thing… the music.

The first track is ‘Down The Steps’, where the guitar tones are ominous; an aching suspense fills the ears as Stokes simmers on the cymbals and then an interesting and abrasive chord emerges. But I’m immediately dubious… why do I suddenly feel like I’m back in the mid-90s rather than the early 90s? And why do Walker’s vocals, for all their gnashing sensibilities, leave me a tad cold?

For me this isn’t Cancer at their most formidable or fusty. It’s still a solid, chugging bursts of gnarly menace that builds pace nicely and features some killer hooks from Walker’s guitar, but I just don’t feel as if I’ve been transported to the band in their prime, and maybe it’s simply because too many years and average albums have passed.

However, there’s still some infectious, gore-soaked chunks to chew on, mainly in the form of the snappy, bludgeoning grind of ‘Garrotte’ with its thrashing haste, while ‘Ball Cutter’ – which includes a guest guitar solo from Anders Nyström (Bloodbath / Katatonia) – comes trudging with ominous designs, with a pounding rhythm section bolstered by Buchanan’s rattling bass before the vocal spurts interrupt, bringing us into a slurping thrash pace before slower riffage ensues.

It’s good stuff, but it’s not Cancer showing the myriad of modern bands how it’s done. Instead, I feel that the trio has a lot of catching up to do. No wonder then that the hectic compositions stand out as blustery, thrashing heaps. ‘Thou Shalt Kill’ is a fast-paced, frothing heap full of tidy yet hasty percussion, and Stokes really comes into his own on ‘The Infocidal’ with its infectious chug, although with Walker’s slurps and the hectic arrangements at times I’m reminded of early Nocturnus only without the complexity.

Elsewhere, ‘Half Man, Half Beast’ begins with enough drama to fill a cinema before the dark, hammering trudge comes in as vast black rolls of cement and flesh merge to create a classic Sepultura-styled heaviness, while ‘Crimes So Vile’ brings more catchy heaviness as Stokes’ drums rattle and clank and Walker’s melody digs in with its plodding drudgery, although its somewhat unremarkable even when it picks up speed.

The title track is one of the fastest on offer; this one provides a healthy sprint of instrumentation and slight dissonance too due to the unusual guitar melody before the pace slows to a threatening trudge before the death / thrash bounding starts up again.

At times I’m reminded of Meathook Seed’s underrated 1993 classic debut Embedded due to some of the pallid exercises embarked upon by Cancer, but Shadow Gripped, for all its solid riffing, does remain at times a bit uneventful and predictable.

Closer ‘Disposer’ begins with further dissonant rumbles as a slow, menacing vibe entertains, but it takes two-minutes to finally pick up pace and even then it’s not one to startle. Instead, we get mid-paced drudgery, the sort I’d heard on The Sins of Mankind. And that’s where we’re at with Shadow Gripped, Cancer still able to drift solemnly into two main tempo patterns from that era although without much flair.

The album is an improvement over the last few releases, but that should have been a given anyway, although whether Shadow Gripped is enough to propel the guys back to the higher echelons of the genre, I’m not so sure.

Neil Arnold

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