CIANIDE • Dead & Rotting LP

From Beyond Productions 2004
Aaahhhh... there's nothing like Death Metal in the morning. I woke up, brewed a pot of coffee, and instead of sitting down with the morning paper, I sat down with this CIANIDE record... to each his own I guess. I've got to preface this review by telling you that I don't like much Death Metal. Sure back in 1991, like every other dipshit Metal fan, I thought Death Metal was where it was at, but with age comes wisdom, and I now know that most of those bands were crap. That's not a revelation that's exclusive to Death Metal... it's basically Sturgeon's Law, which states that 90% of everything is crap - unfortunate but true. So.... CIANIDE. From reading the liner notes, it seems that this album was recorded live in the studio, and contains songs that appeared on some of the band's previous releases. I dig the fact that it's truly live, no overdubs (that I can hear), and it's raw! None of this pristine, modern, quantized robotic bullshit that passes as Metal these days. The liner notes are great, as one of the dudes breaks down the inspiration for each track... it makes trying to figure out what a song reminds you of a lot easier when he says "This one is like such-and-such BATHORY song" or "I ripped this one off from SLAUGHTER". I appreciate the honesty, and the fact that these guys love metal is clear! CIANIDE remind me of ASPHYX maybe, or AUTOPSY a bit... as their's is a blend of Doom and Death Metal. "Envy And Hatred" is my favourite track, and there's a cover of a SLAUGHTER demo track called "Death Dealer" which is also very cool. Here's what I love about vinyl: if I had downloaded this, or bought it on CD, I woulda listened to about 10 seconds, turned it off, and filed it under generic Death Metal. But since I had to actually sit here and listen to the entire record in order to rip it, I quite enjoyed it. That doesn't mean that it's not generic Death Metal, but at least I was able to enjoy it.
DOWNLOAD: Cianide - Dead & Rotting.rar (77.61 MB)