CANCER
Inverted World
Peaceville Records
CANCER has a long, rather fraught history that includes a couple of splits/hiatuses and an ill-fated major label dalliance that led to stylistic missteps - a sadly familiar tale in "extreme" metal circles - hence the first hiatus. And a reunion of three-quarters of the "classic" '90s-era lineup that launched in 2018 eventually crumbled in 2022 when bassist Ian Buchanan and drummer Carl Stokes departed, leaving founder/frontman/guitarist John Walker to soldier on.
But soldier on he has, with a revamped lineup injecting new (and Spanish) blood into the old, formerly all-English band, the results of which being Inverted World, CANCER's seventh album overall. I wouldn't go so far as to say the new members have exactly relit the fire under the band, but they have reinforced what CANCER has done best at its best, which is deliver the sort of groovy, trudging death metal that made it something of England's answer to OBITUARY back in the day.
Seven years removed from CANCER's last album, the 2018 "second comeback" Shadow Gripped, Inverted World is not about reinvention or pushing the bar higher. Where Shadow Gripped helped re-establish the band's old school bona fides - after the rather dreadful first comeback effort from 2005, Spirit In Flames, only further muddied the musical waters and precipitated a second hiatus - Inverted World seems geared toward holding serve as the overhauled lineup gets acclimated and finds its footing.
As the main songwriter, Walker has made that process easier by once again keeping things decidedly old school and relatively simple - arguably to a fault - here. The longstanding knock on CANCER, even during its early '90s heyday,was its steadfast, meat-and-potatoes approach to death/thrash metal. And when that changed with the abortive mish-mash of 1995's major label one-off Black Faith, which added groove/alt metal, grunge and a cover of DEEP PURPLE's "Space Truckin'" to the mix, it was not for the better. Spirit In Flames sought to find a middle ground and only made matters worse.
The meat and potatoes are piled pretty high on Inverted World, which can be both a blessing and a curse. While certainly quite brutal and heavy in an OBITUARY meets BOLT THROWER manner, the opening quartet of "Enter The Gates", "Until They Died", the title track and "39 Bodies" come across as pretty one note with their steady salvo of heaving grooves, trudging tempos and Walker's monotone bark and matter-of-fact delivery.
Inverted World is far more appetizing when the band slathers on a bit of gravy and either opens the aperture a bit, or steps on the gas to take advantage of the assertive drumming of Gabriel Valcazar, also of tech-deathsters WORMED. But per the above, it takesa while for the gravy boat to arrive. But things certainly liven up when they do, and the mid-portion of the album shows some genuine spark and spunk.
"Test Site" and "Amputate" kick up the velocity, riding Valcazar's drum gallop and some pretty mighty riffs from Walker and Robert Navajas, whereas "When Killing Isn't Murder" is a slow build from dreary to turbulent. Later on, the corrosive "Covert Operations" gets downright blasty, offering the album's most intense moments and some gnarly lead tradeoffs.
The lone real stretch here - and it's a stretch to call it a "stretch" - is "Jesus For Eugenics", a TESTAMENT-like opus that kicks off with acoustic guitars, whispered vocals and a somber melody before gradually getting heavier - significantly so in some parts - and more propulsive. It's an awkward tune overall, but at least it's something different.
Yet given CANCER's checkered past, playing it safe here was perhaps a prudent move. Inverted World may not build momentum or break any new ground, but it does provide a stable foundation on which to build going forward - as opposed to digging out of a hole once again. And in the end, Inverted World is pretty O.K., which is certainly preferrable to the pretty bad the band unfortunately has shown it is capable of.
3.0 Out Of 5.0
