Cease of Breeding (a noble sentiment when it comes to many in today’s culture) are a Greek brutal death metal band, with the emphasis on “brutal”. It's entirely fair that I'm not an aficionado of Greek metal – I don't really care for Rotting Christ or Nightrage, and the last even slightly deathly thing from the region that I really enjoyed was Homo Iratus.
That being said, “Sounds of Disembowelment” is a much more enjoyable album than many from the brutal death metal camp, not a genre of which I am a great fan. The big problem, in my not-so humble opinion, is that the application of brutality tends to take front of house instead of actual song writing. I know, I know, as I write I am reminded of conversations my dad used to have with me while I would be listening to my thrash cassettes back in the day. My aversion to the genre could just be as simple as me being “not down with the kids” any more. After all, I'm the wrong side of 30, and while I am still yet to find merit in Margaret Thatcher, middle class bigotry and cardigan wearing is clearly only around the corner.
Still, Cease of Breeding need not worry. Undoubtedly this is brutal stuff; with song titles like “5.2 Litres of Blood” and “The Sight of Hanged Men Makes My Day”, it isn't too huge a stretch of the imagination to begin to note what kind of metal you will find etched into the shiny silver disc. Yes, the riffs are mangled, grotesque and thoroughly down tuned exercises in ferocious dexterity. The vocals are a sickening burp-growl that is generally only otherwise heard from chavs being poured into ambulances the length of the land at 330 am. So yes, the drums are akin to hearing a woodpecker who has been force-fed amphetamine going berserk at your front door, and the accompanying bass is so slick and twangy I have the very real suspicion that if played live and at volume they may produce involuntary audience bowel collapse. All of this would be relatively common place without that hard-to-place “X factor” (which, coincidentally, might be all the more interesting if the categories were “under 30s”, “over 30s” and “brutal death metal”). In an age where the market isn't so much saturated, more like drowning in a sea of cookie-cutter extremity, each band able to release their albums into the blogosphere, it takes real talent to stand out among the crowd. The arms race for extremity has been comprehensively lost by everyone, the novelty factor of sickening topics, speed or out and out brutality long since abandoned. All that remains is the capacity to marry heaviness with song writing ability.
Yes, it's here where Cease of Breeding really shine. They are able to construct interesting, varied and dynamic songs within the span of the eight tracks available here. This is an incredibly engaging album, with interesting riffs, great composition and an impressively clear and punchy production. Standing head and shoulders above pretty much every other brutal death metal release I have heard this year, it's on the strength of their song writing skills – making the leap between interesting riffs to interesting tracks – that Cease of Breeding have produced such a groovy, brutal and overall memorable album. Not quite unmissable, but certainly an album of sufficient quality to lure a suspicious critic into playing it consistently over the past fortnight...
http://www.myspace.com/ceaseofbreeding
