Review by Ben for Cancer - Death Shall Rise (1991)

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.