CANNAE „Gold Becomes Sacrifice”

Music: American Metal/Melodic Death/Thrash
Country: USA
Website: http://www.cannae.net
Duration: 38.15


Cool Songs: Rats, Snakes & Thieves, Indemnity, Mechanics of Moving Backwards, Bastinado, Acts of False Signals.

L.A’s Prosthetic Records have unearthed another find. New Hampshire’s Cannae* has been plying their trade for sometime now – a couple of full length affairs have garnered them quite the local following. However, since their sophomore effort ‘Horror’, there has been a line up turn over of some three members. Perhaps the subtle change of direction that this new album evokes had something to do with it. Whatever the case, it is cleat that ‘Cannae’ have become a much more authoritative outfit and as a result, ‘Gold Becomes Sacrifice’ is easily their strongest to date.

Being a ‘Boston’ band, the NWOAHM meets Metalcore tag hangs heavy in terms of their musical style, but unlike their peers (i.e. Lamb of God and God Forbid in particular) ‘Cannae’ draw from the well of Floridian death metal and Swedish style melodic Thrash. Instantly, for me at least, that makes ‘Cannae’ just a little more interesting than most. Sure, they have the obligatory metalcore tendencies entwined within their core sound, but the tight angular riffage and overall speedy thrash element is far more overwhelming. This is a very good thing.

The most impressive aspect is its overtly ‘metallic’ production. And there is a fair amount of metal cred attached to it also – rather than your Kurt Ballou/Adam Dutkiewicz metalcore standard, Cannae headed to Tampa Bay, Florida and recorded with Jason Suecof and the iconic Jim Morris. Hell, they even brought in James Murphy for a guest solo spot on ‘Bastinado’. Needless to say, ‘GBS’ is a very aggressive, metal riff oriented affair. Its romps along with that driving ‘At The Gates/Haunted’ death/thrash feel whilst maintaining an aggression and anger that offsets any overstated melodic components. You won’t find vocalist ‘Adam DuLong (who, by the way is a 110kg monster!!) crooning any clean choruses on this disc folks. It’s pure, in your face aggression all the way; Tompa and Dolving style, but with just a tad of Adam’s own charisma and personality in tow.

‘GBS’ is also a very well balanced album – it has its metal mitts in lots of pies, but never to the detriment of one style over another. Death metal style blasting is tempered with song excellent mid tempo rhythmic groove, the melodic Swedish tendencies infused with a liberal fast paced thrash element. The odd acoustic instrumental breaks things up a little. The dynamics work well. Granted, everything that has been mentioned here will not change the face of metal -Certainly for those who are far more jaded than I am about this NWOAHM style, you won’t find too much to get overly excited about here. Still, even a fool will be able to admit to the fact that Cannae are far from the worst you’ll hear.

‘GBS’ has a highly amped, dynamic fury and authentic metal aggression about it that smacks of a band that refuses to wander too far down the media frenzied metalcore path. There’s more to come from this lot I reckon…

*Cannae is taken from the ‘Battle of Cannae’ – where Hannibal defeated the Roman Army in Italy in 216 BC. Pronounced ‘Knae’ or ‘Kay-Na’; take your pick.

note: 7.9

Tracklist

Rats Snakes And Thieves
Faceless Portrait
Indemnity
Marked By Monuments
Collapse
Mechanics Of Moving Backwards
Audience Of The Unspoken
Bastinado
Acts Of False Signals
Fear And Panic