CANCER — Spirit in Flames (review)

CANCER — Spirit in Flames album cover Album · 2005 · Thrash Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
UMUR
"Spirit in Flames" is the 5th full-length studio album by UK death/thrash metal act Cancer. The album was released through Copro Records in June 2005. Cancer formed in 1987 and were part of the early UK death metal scene along with artists like Carcass, Benediction, and Bolt Thrower. They released four studio albums before disbanding in 1996. They reunited in 2003 and released the "Corporation$" EP in 2004, and "Spirit in Flames" is the follow-up to that release. Cancer disbanded again in 2006, but reunited once more in 2013. Since "Black Faith (1995)" there have been some lineup changes as bassist and founding member Ian Buchanan has been replaced by Adam Richardson, and guitarist Barry Savage has been replaced by Dave Leitch. The usual suspects are drummer Carl Stokes, and vocalist/guitarist John Walker.

While Cancer started out playing pretty straight old school death metal on their first couple of releases, they soon started incorporating thrash metal elements, and by "Black Faith (1995)" the death metal elements were almost gone. "Spirit in Flames" more or less continues down the thrash metal oriented path of it´s predecessor, so it´s not a "return to the roots" type of comeback album. The music still features a couple of vague death metal moments, but they are few and far between. Instead the band incorporate both industrial and stoner elements in their core thrash metal sound, and the outcome is relatively eclectic. I hear a lot of Prong influences in the music (I also hear a few nods toward "Grin (1993)" by Coroner), but Cancer are generally less groove oriented. The hoarse shouting vocals style is pretty similar to the delivery of Tommy Victor though.

The material on the 9 track, 39:03 is generally decent in quality, but there´s little here that stands out as remarkable beyond what´s standard for the style. The only time during the album´s playing time, where I´m really captured by the band´s sound is during the latter part of "Solar Prophecy", where Cancer suddenly go into stoner mode, plays some pretty great hard rocking riffs, and add a psychadelic touch to the music. Other than that the music tends to sound a bit stale and uninspired. It´s not particularly bad, but when the catchy and memorable moments are as few as they are here, it would be wrong to call this a high quality release.

The sound production is also of a pretty standard quality. Again it´s not bad, but it doesn´t exactly enhance the listening experience either. The musicianship is on a pretty high level though, and it does slightly save the day. So all in all "Spirit in Flames" isn´t the most interesting release out there and Cancer have certainly released better, but a 3 star (60%) rating is still warranted.
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