A mark of brutality
Who would ever have thought this type of relentless, go for the throat, thrash metal would ever catch on. I remember the day when cries could be heard saying 'All that James Hetfield does is shout all the time'. Oh how times have changed, but I think this is a natural progression in music, heavy music will continue to get heavier. There are several divisions of very heavy music, death metal, thrash metal, speed metal, black metal and so on, but Cannae are part of the latest American metal-core scene which includes such bands as Lamb of God, Killswitch Engage and Hatebreed.
This Boston five piece are brutal, they're angry and pissed off (I've yet to find out why.) and epitomise everything that is metal-core. They're not going to win any awards for originality because all the songs on 'Gold Becomes Sacrifice' are textbook thrash. Cannae choose to pummel the listener with churning double bass riffs and relentless shouting that is almost devoid of any melody. If the vocals are just continuous screaming then it's left to the instrumentation to provide the hooks and melody, which, in all hope, will cause you to keep putting the album back into the CD player. Cannae have just managed to achieve this as there is enough catchy and cool riffage going on this disc to keep you coming back for more.
'Rats, Snakes and Thieves' is perhaps one of the best openers I've heard in a long time. The machine gun style drumming and vicious chugging is straight from Fear Factories top draw. The bass rumbles, filling the bottom end frequency like flood damage before the pace is cranked up with vocalist Adam Dulong screaming like he wants a fight. In the midst of the brutality, to my surprise, is a rather cool twin duelling solo between Alex Vieira and Stephen Colombo. Because of this lead break the song has switched from Fear Factory to Testament, which, is not a bad thing. It's a little unfair to compare Cannae to anyone in particular for they are an accumulation of a number of bands around at the moment. Shadows Fall, All That Remains and Chimera are three more acts I could mention who have things in common with Cannae. They don't particularly sound like any of the afore mentioned bands, but the chances are if you're a fan of those groups then you'll get on famously with these thrash-a-holics.
The production is faultless, the guitars grind, the bass is deep and the drums are bloody-well perfect. Colin Conway on the skins is impressive with his clever double bass rhythms adding extra power to the already pulverising guitar work. The problem with playing as heavy as possible all of the time is it does get tiresome after a short while. The first four tracks are excellent and even with an acoustic break in the middle of the album the tail end of this CD does muddy into one. Only Bastinado with its melodic riffs and eminent solo stands out from the latter half, yet even with its extra melody it's still a fairly brutal song.
This is a solid thrash album from the quintet. It has some good moments, a lot of average moments and not many bad ones I am happy to say. 'Gold Becomes Sacrifice' isn't really about hooks and catchiness, it's about anger and aggression, and on that level it works really well. With the tendency to launch into the odd lead break it elevates it above the likes of Hatebreed and Chimera, and at only thirty-eight minutes it can be best described as a short sharp shock.