CANCER — To the Gory End (review)

CANCER — To the Gory End album cover Album · 1990 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"To the Gory End" is the debut full-length studio album by UK death metal act Cancer. The album was released through Vinyl Solution in May 1990 which makes it one of the earliest examples of UK death metal. The UK scene was initiated a few years later than the US one. Most UK acts like Napalm Death, Carcass and Bolt Thrower played grindcore or grindcore influenced death metal in the late eighties before turning to "pure" death metal on their early nineties albums. To the Gory End was produced by prolific US producer Scott Burns but not recorded at Morrisound Studios. Instead the album was recorded at LOCO Studios Usk.

The music on "To the Gory End" is pretty fierce death metal with touches of aggressive late eighties thrash metal. The vocals are not deep growls but rather a more high pitched snarl. The musicianship are tight and the music delivered with the right amount of brutal passion and conviction. The sound production is decent for the time, and suits the music, but not without flaws. It´s very raw and the guitar tone is not always pleasant sounding. "To the Gory End" is widely considered a classic UK death metal album and tracks like "Blood Bath", "C. F. C. (Cancer Fucking Cancer)" and "Die Die" (which features John Tardy from Obituary on backing vocals) certainly deserve to be called classic death metal tracks. Not all of the remaining tracks are equally as noteworthy though, but the quality is decent throughout.

Overall "To the Gory End" is a solid UK death metal release. I wouldn´t call it outstanding, because of the more unremarkable tracks on the album, but as mentioned above there are a couple of gems on the album and a 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating isn´t all wrong.
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