Crisix Sessions: #1 American Thrash

In light of the recent hiatus announcement from Spanish stalwarts Crisix, I'm moderately sure this Crisix Sessions: #1 American Thrash, released 5 years ago, will not have any sequels soon. Cover albums are a tricky subject I've never faced, so let's see how it turns out.

I have a possible remark on the song choice, in the sense that they're somewhat of... normie choices. I mean, 'Toxic Waltz', 'Chalice of Blood', 'Critical Mass'... some of them are literally the first songs many will have in their minds once they read the band names on the artwork. Obviously, your mileage may vary – for many of you those songs are untouchable, so any attempts to cover them will be an automatic failure, especially since the Spaniards aren't exactly the kind of guys that would deconstruct and put their own totally personal spins to them. As for me, as often happens, I'm somewhat in the middle. Classic songs are classics for a reason and hearing them once again won't be a bad experience, as long as they don't butcher them. I also want to take advantage of the occasion to finally tell the whole world how much I fuckin' hate 'The Toxic Waltz'. With a passion, really. The immense popularity of that lame-ass, boring song has baffled me since day one, and it's a feeling unlikely to ever change. With that out of the way, let's move on.

Instrumentally speaking, differences are predictably few, mainly consisting of some altered drum lines or slight variations in tempo, the most welcome being the acceleration halfway through 'Critical Mass', while the most inexplicable ones are found in 'Infectious Hospital Waste' – is that a fucking breakdown in the middle? And where's the double bass after the solo? The last part? Hmm, color me disappointed. Apart from that, the band is surely as tight as it's ever been. There are a lot of legendary riffs across this half an hour, that's for sure, and they're played with adequate faithfulness, although with maybe just a bit too much polish in the production, while Javi Carrión's drumming is what tries to spice up the whole thing the most.

Of course, the bone of contention is gonna be the fact that all these songs are handled by one man at the mic, and one I always had my reservations about. I'm sorry, but Julián Baz's vocals will never be close to my cup of tea. His shrill, strident delivery is, as always, hard to define, and an acquired taste if I've ever seen one. He occasionally attempts a more growled inflection here and there that makes the whole thing more digestible, if anything. As much as I loathe 'The Toxic Waltz', it's the song where he's closer to the original vocalist, and unsurprisingly cuts a fine figure. Evildead's 'The 'Hood' and Testament's 'C.O.T.L.O.D.' are the slightly more 'obscure' (term used very loosely) picks, and also for this reason I found them more than appreciable. Conversely, I feared the worst about his takes on Anthrax, Forbidden, or Demolition Hammer, and if 'Imitation of Life''s sheer energy is enough to (almost) overlook anything else, the latter two were disappointing.

In the end, this is nothing more than yet another reminder of the glory days of the genre. But once you think about it... what else are cover albums for?

-review written for the 14th Diamhea Memorial Review Challenge - may you rest in peace, Chris.