ALBUM REVIEW: Escape from Illusion – Cerebral Extinction
To those who are familiar with them, CEREBRAL EXTINCTION are a band that give brutal death metal fans what they want and in many cases it’s an insanely heavy, savage metal album that they can simultaneously sink their teeth into and snap their neck to in one fell swoop. However, on their third full-length album Escape From Illusion, things are a little different.
The first real taste of new music on the album comes in the form of Asymmetrical Trap Body and it seems as though it is business as usual for the Italian outfit. It’s a track that is filled to the brim with technical riffs, pummelling drums, and demonic guttural vocals.
When the band are in full flow, they are simply breath-taking. The rhythmic shifts in songs such as Transmutation and Haemorrhage Of A God coupled with the intricate guitar lines show just how capable the band are as musicians. Harnessing the sheer ferocity of the music and wrestling it into technically proficient and engaging songs is no small feat. In fact, we have seen plenty of bands over the years attempt to do exactly this and fail to nail that balance which is so important to creating good death metal.
It cannot be stressed enough that despite their appetite for crushing death metal songs, CEREBRAL EXTINCTION have always been destined to be more than that. A perfect example of this The Intruder Part I and The Intruder Part II in the middle of the album. To have a two-part, collectively over 12-minute song in the middle of an album of this nature is a bold move to say the least. Yet somehow the band manage to pull it off with an engrossing, adventurous musical journey. Shifting between their familiar brutal death metal sound through more progressive sections and somehow making it sound like a natural progression for them is something to be admired.
Towards the back end of the album is one of the highlights of Escape From Illusion in the form of The 4 Eyes Of Chaos. This song is a classic death metal track with a slightly modern twist and sees the band shape shift between classic CANNIBAL CORPSE and more modern contemporaries such as BENEATH THE MASSACRE and THE FACELESS, marrying the two styles together in a way that is as adventurous as it is oddly familiar.
CEREBRAL EXTINCTION are a band that deserve more attention than they get. We are currently going through what seems to be a renaissance of the old school death metal scene the world over with bands fighting for their moment in the sun and whilst this is obviously a brilliant thing, it can also be easy to overlook certain acts and to do so with this particular one would be criminal.
Rating: 8/10
Escape From Illusion is set for release on July 15th via Amputated Vein Records.
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