Cruelty's Necessary Decision

This short three-song tape seems to be a rehearsal recording of the material that would eventually become Cirrhus's second full-length Unimpeachable Madness. Y'know, the more I look into this band the more I realize that, despite their massive discography, they probably only have about 15-20 songs overall - not a ridiculous amount by any means. It's just that they record them so many times in so many circumstances that there are plenty of things to release. It's interesting because then once you're familiar with them, from a reviewing perspective you can focus more on how one recording of the track sounds different from another, or communicates a different energy. I suppose that's kind of cool.

Compared to other Cirrhus material, the main thing that strikes me as unique about this tape is how fucking fast it is. Cirrhus have never been averse to the blast beat, but songs like "Electricity of Psychic Superiority" and "Unimpeachable Madness" are at an absolutely blistering pace, bringing to mind some of the more austere Blazebirth Hall material like Vargleide. I've only heard Unimpeachable Madness once, so I can't say for sure whether this lightning pace is how these songs were "intended" to be or whether the band was just really hitting the coke during these particular sessions. The riffing is mostly unchanged from Cirrhus dogma: howling wind-like chords that spiral around, sometimes finding a very melodic set of progressions but sometimes suddenly turning dissonant and odd. The music certainly gives off a very unique vibe no matter what it's doing, that has to be conceded. As with most Cirrhus material, I think the more dissonant material is the weak link. It's not a coincidence that "Cruelty's Necessary Decision", the most melodic and mid-paced song is the best; the other stuff is cool, especially "Unimpeachable Madness" which has a great closer, but not as satisfying or deep as when Cirrhus put their minds to writing a good melodic song. This is why the two self-titled releases are my favorite by the band to date, since they're more predominantly comprised of these types of morose melodies that I think the band does so well.

The other elements of the release are quality, as they tend to be with Cirrhus. The classic howling vocals still suit the music really well, the drum performance is on point despite the speed of this material, and the production is raw but comfortably so, nestled in a muted cocoon of rawness but still giving the music room to breathe and expand like tendrils (cirrhuses!) crawling from a vine. This isn't the best Cirrhus material, but it definitely gets the job done and is a worthy part of their discography.