It has been a 5 year wait for these US Death/grind heavyweights to release something that you can get your grubby paws onto; namely ‘Zero Comfort Margin’ and their last full length in 2003 ‘Human Harvest’. Those releases stood out as a testament to extreme forms of death with a hell of a lot of grindcore in the music. So in 2010, there are a few more bands doing the same thing, have CODC done enough to back up their legacy?
Musically, there are no complaints whatsoever. Thwart with all things heavy, the guitar tones are perfect, the bass is falling off the edge of the world it is so low and down tuned. Production is where the album is let down tremendously. I mean come on, you can’t decipher jack, it’s badly recorded (maybe this is my poor quality mp3 files, but it sounds like a worn out cassette tape, with lots of background noise, and breaks in the sound – and it was checked on 3 different systems). Vocally I find issues too, there is too much pig squealing and it just ruins the package. Guttural styling is common in metal, as it the grind scream, but I really do not like these animal sounding renditions, it is just too far past the goalpost. The songs are typically short enough not to get bored, ‘Chaos Crawls Back’ for example and ‘We Who Move the Graven Worms’ which is practically at a snails pace compared to their other material until the faster snare comes on and then the blastbeats! CODC can write good tunes and are talented at what they do, there has got to be a better way to present your material to do themselves justice.
This is a massively underrated band but for me they have done themselves no favours, the production is just chaotic and of inferior quality. Grind fans will no doubt like this, and give me the middle finger, but you know what, to me and to the passing common man, not a hope in hell.
http://www.myspace.com/circleofdeadchildren
http://www.candlelightrecords.co.uk/index_home.htm
