Cancer – Inverted World

vote
6.5

• Band:
  Cancer
• Duration: 00:40:00
• Available from: 25/04/2025
• Label:

• Peaceville

Streaming not yet available

There is a world upside down in the 'new' Cancer, now reached the finish line of the seventh full-length of a troubled career. “Inverted World” is in fact an album that sounds like the deformed reflection of their history: all in all family in the forms, but crossed by a light once again different, more calculated, more weighted. The definitive transfer of the band to Spain and the entry of three new members, including the talented drummer Gabriel Valcázar dei Wormed, certainly led lifeblood to the training led by John Walker, especially in the live context. However, the group's approach to the composition remains in line with what has already been heard on the previous “Shadow Gripped”, without looking for steering towards more modern shores or, on the contrary, nostalgic celebrations of the origins, perhaps to ride the wave of the thirty -fifth anniversary of the publication of the beloved debut “to the Gory End”.
The Cancer therefore remain in a sort of limbo in which the desire to propose a traditional death metal is perceived, but without giving in to a primitive instinct. Also this time, the pieces are generally controlled, with a centellated aggression and structures that rarely explode in moments of a more direct and spontaneous fury.
If on “Shadow Gripped” this approach could have been attributed to a sort of reabsigmentation after years of inactivity, today it is clear that it is a deliberate choice of Walker and his companions, to whom evidently likes to take the longest way, testing himself with pieces that are not too direct, perhaps in an attempt to free himself from bulky comparisons with the celebrated starts of the career start.
This modus operandi, however, leads to swinging results: if some episodes still manage to hit the mark, revealing a good balance between aggression and melodic construction – see “Until they Diad”, “When Killing Isn't Murder” or “Jesus for Eugenics”, which emerge with well -settled riffs and rhythmic solutions to the height – other traces are cars. Incisive, giving the feeling of having in front of plots that drag themselves without a real explosion of energy, as if you never get to a liberating outburst, to a riff capable of 'resolving' the song and making it memorable.
From the point of view of production, “Inverted World” instead stands out for a clean and well balanced sound, without slipping on too cold tones and 'plasticosis'': V. Santura (Triptykon) has edited the mixing and this clear sound yield but not too much manages to better enhance all the tools. It is therefore a pity that sometimes the feeling that such a well -kept sound would have deserved a more inspired and constant songwriting. Valcázar, for example, is a highly talented drummer, but the controlled and never really frenetic context of the album ends up limiting its potential.
The comparison with colleagues Benedictation, who with their last two works have shown how direct and without frills approach it can be all in all winning, it is inevitable. Cancer seem to want to avoid too simplistic solutions, but the risk is to lose sight of the effectiveness and spontaneity that a genre like this specific type of Death Metal requires.
“Inverted World” offers noteworthy moments, but as a whole it lacks that spark and that ignorant push (the latter recognizable only in some passages of “corrosive”) which could have made it a truly pleasant return.
The new line-up has the potential to go further: we hope that in the next chapters the quartet will be able to exploit it fully.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-bf-uspovm