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Crisis: Like sheep led to slaughter
24/06/10 || Daemonomania
Seems that reviewing the works of American death/thrash/somewhat-core band Crisis has fallen to one man, and one man alone. Nothing wrong with that. At this point I’m sure people don’t care much about Crisis anyway. But despite (or perhaps because of) that fact your favorite staffer will cover the last album they put out before calling it quits. Still reading? Good.
When it comes to Crisis, vocalist, artist, and leather-seamstress Karyn Crisis has always been the defining factor. Her insanely varied voice – from growls to shrieks to squeals to real singing – gained the band the tiny share of notoriety they enjoyed. She’s Chuckish in that the dudes playing the instruments may change, but she remains the frontwoman. The tiny evil frontwoman. On “Tasty sheep lead to a kebab house”, it seems she wanted to go a more metalcore route and hired accordingly. The result is certainly not a great note for this unique outfit to go out on.
What’s wrong? Well, the core of course. Correct me if I’m wrong, but 2004 was about the tail end of when you could get away with adding “those typa riffs” to your tunes and still be legit. Not the overdone fake melo-Swede riffs. The hardcore-influenced kind. Whether or not it was an acceptable practice then, it sure doesn’t sound great now. Like that time you tried to make alcoholic cider under the bed. Minus the apple juice. Don’t ask. That being said, there are still a few tracks I won’t skip should they appear via the dreaded shuffle feature us musical impurists sometimes employ. “A graveyard for bitches”, “Nomad”, “Corpus apocalypse”, and the harrowing “Secrets of the prison house” spring immediately to mind. Lyrical themes include the expected hints at domestic violence and self-loathing, with a bit of anti-Bushism to display hip cool left-wingedness. Also now outdated. Obeyma!
The real low point for the whole disc (and maybe their whole career) is “Study in cancer”, a mega-generic song featuring Dan Dismal or some shit from the absolutely worthless band Crematorium. Say what you want about Crisis being teh suck, they were never this boring. And Karyn needs whathisface’s backup processed crap vocals like I need more student loan debt. Was she pals with Danny Boy in Los Angeles when the band relocated there? If you’re just looking for any resident from the city of angels to guest, why not a rap metal track with Tupac’s ghost? The crossover appeal is palpable. You could cut it with a knife.
So yeah, I wish Crisis had stuck to that odd mixture employed on “The Hollowing” – a surely underrated album. But they, or she, didn’t. So they tarnish their legacy a bit. Who hasn’t after ten years in the game? Lord (K) knows I have done so multiple times on GD, and I’ve been here a scant 3 years. Yeah, this is one for the die-hard Crisissies only. Any of you out there?
- Information
- Released: 2004
- Label: The End/Children of Rage
- Website: Crisis MySpace
- Band
- Karyn Crisis: vocals
- Afzaal Nasiruddeen: guitars
- Jywanza Hobson: guitars
- Gia Chuan Wang: bass
- Ryan Ball: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Omen
- 02. Waking the Dead
- 03. A Graveyard For Bitches
- 04. Nomad
- 05. Politics Of Domination
- 06. Blood Burden
- 07. Rats In A Maze
- 08. Secrets Of The Prison House
- 09. Corpus Apocalypse
- 10. Study In Cancer
- 11. Exit Catacomb
- 12. The Fate
