Barriers

"Barriers" is a good death metal demo from the early nineties. It sounds like a mix between early Deicide, early Suffocation ("Human Waste" era), and mid-era Death (i.e., “Human”). Expect lashings of thrashy riffing mixed with some chuggy brutal moments and some melodic subtlety. It is a good mix, and it sounds like an above average Florida death metal band from 1992 (neglecting to mention that these guys came from Texas, of course).

Crucifix existed for a while before this demo, but this is where they began playing an ornate and technical style of death metal (their earlier material being more primitive). The band showed some ambitious ideas here, particularly during the full-blown orchestral intro, which is less pretentious than it sounds. The songs are better than the usual riff-salad peddled by lesser American death metal bands. The first couple of tracks both reach the six minute mark without rinsing ideas. There is a good balance between slow and sinister stuff (such as the stomping groove near the beginning of “Vaporized”), and the melodic and inventive stuff (with solos surely influenced by James Murphy). I like the ‘velvet glove and iron fist’ approach.

The production is good, better than some American death metal albums of the period, and more rugged and aggressive sounding than the average Morrisound recording. The only real drawback of this demo is the drumming. This drummer was not (yet) good enough to play the kind of music Crucifix wanted to play. He sounds clumsy and messy throughout these songs, struggling to provide them with a backbone. It sounds like he wasn't ready to play this more advanced and demanding style of death metal. It is difficult to imagine the likes of Suffocation or Deicide thriving with this kind of percussion.

The band continued for a couple of years after this demo. They recorded another demo in 1994 (later made available on the “Visions of Nihilism” compilation). That demo only contains two songs, but was a massive improvement over this one (it features better drumming and song-writing). I get the impression that Crucifix had the talent and imagination to have been an elite death metal band, but they were a bit too late and did not release enough material to enter the conversation. "Barriers" is the band's most substantial recording, but not their best.