Review of Cardiac Arrest - "And Death Shall Set You Free"

LOCAL LUNACY / INDEPENDENT INSANITY

By: Geoff Teach

Since the late 90’s, Chicago’s death metal quartet Cardiac Arrest have brought old school style metal to the masses. Steeped in grim grime and glorious gore since its creation, Cardiac Arrest have always aimed to record, in their own words, “Heart-Stopping Death Rot”, and it seems that they have again succeeded in doing so with the late 2014 release of their fifth studio full-length, “And Death Shall Set You Free” (Razorback Recordings). Complete with lyrics and imagery that seem to come straight from the pages of a horror novel, “And Death Shall Set You Free” is ten tracks of bloodstained death metal that almost literally reeks of putrefaction.

“And Death Shall Set You Free” ranges wildly in pace from track to track, and sometimes even within the tracks themselves. From speed demons like “Unhinged”, “Exterminators of the Earth”, and “Ill Omen” to the more complex, doomy epics such as “Bridge Burner”, “There Is No Escape”, and “Rise! Part Man/Part Beast”, Cardiac Arrest have recorded more than just an album of incessant, rip-roaring metal. No, it is more mature than that. Instead, there is a pronounced fluctuation from lightning fast and thrashed-out to crusty and sludgy, and the overall effect is one that seems to rise above the rather pedestrian dismissiveness of the label “gore metal”. “And Death Shall Set You Free” has a depth to it that is genuinely refreshing.

Overall, Cardiac Arrest’s “And Death Shall Set You Free” is an excellent album for fans of bone-crunching death metal, but it should also appeal to metal heads who enjoy slower, more deliberate riffage in their music, too. Although the production could have been a little cleaner, “And Death Shall Set You Free” is still a highly competent release, and I strongly urge you, my beloved readers, to check it out for yourselves!

KEEP IT METAL! \m/

To check out one of my favorite tracks off of “And Death Shall Set You Free”, just press play below to hear “There Is No Escape” now!