Cancer - Death Shall Rise (1991)^{Release ID: 9943}

Any band that contains James Murphy on guitar is generally worth checking out. His work on albums by Obituary and Death is outstanding, with his leads showing immense class and skill. I picked up Cancer's Death Shall Rise album eagerly and expected to find some thoroughly enjoyable death metal. Unfortunately, while the album isn't terrible, there's nothing exceptional at all about this release. James' leads are of course more than decent, but just about everything else lacks any sort of power. Waiting through 3 or 4 minutes of plodding, uninspired death metal, just to hear a 15 second solo certainly isn't enough to keep me interested.

The main problem with Death Shall Rise is the drumming. It's completely and utterly boring and simplistic, dragging otherwise decent riffs into downward spirals. The vocals are not rubbish, but they're merely average, as is the bass performance. Overall, Death Shall Rise is a completely average album in just about every way, and so deserves a completely average rating, with .5 added for James' presence.

I picked this English death metal record up through a mate shortly after release & gave it a fair bit of attention over the next couple of years, likely due to the involvement of one of my favourite guitarists in James Murphy (Death/Hallows Eve/Disincarnate/Konkhra/Obituary/Testament). Cancer's sophomore record offers a very simple, mid-paced, meat-&-potatoes brand of old-school death metal that seems purposely built around the Florida mould with Massacre, Obituary & particularly "Leprosy"-era Death all being decent comparisons. It was even recorded at Morrisound Studios with Scott Burns but it's not as engaging as the classic works of its clear influences. Despite not containing any weak tracks per se, "Death Shall Rise" does tend to sound a little lethargic at times, particularly during the B side after the A side got my hopes up by kicking off with the three clear album highlights. Some of that may be due to the limited capabilities of drummer Carl Stokes (Unseen Terror/Venomous Contempt) who struggles to create consistent energy but even Murphy's lead solos sound a little repetitive & lacking in ambition at times. There are some great riffs included, even if they are a little basic. I also really enjoy the highly intelligible vocal delivery of front man John Walker so "Death Shall Rise" isn't a bad record but it's not one that I've found myself returning to all that often over the years either. I'd suggest that it was probably as good as Cancer got though.