### Cage: Science of annihilation

#### 08/07/10 || HailandKill

Cage have never been afraid to descend the depths of cornyness before and certainly not on their self released latest, “Science of Annihilation”. The album launches with a yawn-inducing monologue where this all-powerful deity proclaims his dominion over the Universe, etceteraetceteraetcetera… Once the verbal diarrhea is over the quintet rip it like Ripper Owens with loose bowels on “Planet Crusher”. It’s energetic, no doubt, but a crappy song whether you listen to it slow, fast, after getting high from cheeseburgers, or standing on your head. “Scarlet Witch” is a marked improvement as it proceeds to plumb every ounce of King Diamond worship these daytime real estate dabblers have in their metal lovin’ hearts.

Not content to delve into the supernatural, singer Sean Peck, he of the bald pate and endless falsettos, takes the listener for a ride on the Ghost Rider inspired “Spirit of Vengeance” before the ball-tingling “Black River Falls” commences to stew in further evil. If the listener isn’t sick of these crusty Californians halfway through this opus, then be prepared to endure such blatant Judas Priest plagiarism on the odious “Speed Kills” (for the love of the devil, don’t name your song after a Michael Angelo Batio instructional shred DVD) and the asinine “Stranger In Black”, which is about a guy cruising the night time highways looking for houses to rob. What a pile of shit, frankly speaking.

To Cage’s credit, after releasing ten million albums in the last 12 years they’ve finally become adept at song craft, thus is the listener treated to the emotionally charged ballad “Specter of War” that’s followed by the bareknuckle title track paving the way for the cartoonish closing dialogue. It’s a major highlight of the album where the band abandon themselves to cheesy sci fi schlock and produce a dialogue between a particularly cynical individual who’s got no beef if the whole goddamn universe goes down the cosmic shitter. Holy fuck, that’s heavy metal attitude right there, right at the very end of existence.

Scrutinizing the details now, since this album is 100% Cage through and through, the quintet almost ruin the mixing for lack of experience. Listen to the finished product and you’ll hear where things went afoul. Musically the band teeters between ‘generic’ and ‘hella impressive’. Of course, if you happen to love metal done in the vein of Judas Priest, expect to be blinded by everything Cage do.

- Information
- Released: 2009
- Label: Heavy Metal Media
- Website: Cage MySpace
- Band
- Sean Peck: vocals
- Dave Garcia: guitars
- Anthony McGinnis: guitars
- Mike Giordano: bass
- Norm Leggio: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. The Power That Feeds
- 02. Planet Crusher
- 03. Scarlet Witch
- 04. Spirit of Vengeance
- 05. Black River Falls
- 06. Operation Overlord
- 07. Power Of A God
- 08. Speed Kills
- 09. Stranger In Black
- 10. Die Glocke
- 11. Specter of War
- 12. Science of Annihilation
- 13. At The Edge of the Infinite