Cianide Gods of Death

Cianide 'Gods of Death' (Hell's Headbangers, 2011)

I first came across Cianide in 2009 when I picked up their split with Japan's doom deathsters, Coffins. I purchased the 7" in Grave, a record shop situated in a bizarre and hard to find retail/apartment/office block in Osaka. The main draw for The Process, we were playing about twenty minutes away at a brilliant hardcore punk all dayer, was the fact that the shop was run by Chew, the drummer for the much worshipped sludge lords Corrupted. Stu, who accompanied us on the trip, was most certainly in awe and it was brilliant watching him try to get more than two words out of the enigmatic tub thumper, it was also great to find Shank records so far from home.

I didn't think about the split until many months later when Fray was getting excited about his latest Coffins purchase and I dug it out for a spin. The Cianide track grabbed us both immediately as it was a catchy, heavy piece of mid paced death in the vein of some of our Swedish favourites. With that in mind I immediately picked up the limited version of their most up to date album from Hell's Headbangers.

As with all HH releases 'Gods of Death' is beautifully packaged in a glossy gatefold with poster and nice splatter vinyl. The band look exactly like they sound; old school (with the emphasis on OLD), tough and a little bit tired.

If Benediction are meat and potatoes death metal then you could say these Chicagoans are chicken and biscuits death metal. Whilst a good deal more enjoyable than Benediction or Cancer, Cianide are pretty uninspired. The shadow of Celtic Frost looms large over Cianide's mid paced crunch and fellow Yanks Incantation and Autopsy can be heard in the doomy grooves. However, like Master, this is a tad too simple for my tastes and, although it's great background music to enjoy beers with, it's not surprising that Cianide will always be seen as death metal also rans.

Peace