• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

Ten years after their last full-length album, Cancer are back with a nicely done album. It is labelled as Death Metal, but I found it to be more along the lines of death/thrash, with the Death Metal sound being of the old school variety. I'm not familiar with their earlier material so I can't comment on whether those were better label as straight up Death Metal, nor if this is any better or worse than their previous output.

"Spirit in Flames" did not "kick my ass" but it is still an album that I was able to listen to several times in a row without feeling the urge to turn it off. It does shine by quite a bit of variety, with songs that are slow to mid-paced and some occasional speedy moments. The music is essentially Death/Thrash and tends more toward thrash than Death, and sometimes venturing into "plain" heavy metal territory. A well done combination of sounds overall. The vocals are of the thrashy kind, so if you're not into Death Metal-style growls, fear not, you won't find any of that in here. You don't even need to read the lyrics to figure out what he's saying. :)

I don't know if fans of Cancer's previous material will be satisfied by this, but overall I found it to be a good album. Its problem is a problem shared by a lot (if not most) albums out there: Nothing here is really remarkable. It's good music and well done, nothing more, nothing less. Good stuff.