So, it’s June 2015 and a CD from Crossed Fire with a release date in 2014 arrives? That was the first mystery. The second was who is the band, and how do I find out about them, as I know many a review reader may have an interest in the band’s history as well as their music. Well, I never managed to get the band’s website, as printed on the sleeve to open, and their label was distinctly lacking in information too. What I did manage to find out was that Crossed Fire are a Portuguese four piece, and that ‘Life’s A Gamble’ was due out on 5th December 2014, beyond that and a video for ‘Got The Medicine’, they remained surprisingly enigmatic. As a person who started listening to music in the days of tape exchanges when a TDK 90 was cutting edge technology, not a sign of kvlt cred, not a problem, so I let the music speak for itself.
The album opens well enough, with a brooding instrumental reeking of NOLA sludge and more than a hint of groove. When ‘Hope Fades Away’ fires in there is little doubt that Pantera must have been a huge influence, all thudding bass lines, Vinnie Paul drum battery, and angry snarled vocals. What was lacking was the firework solos, but then again players with the fretboard skills of the late lamented Dimebag are few and far between. ‘Black Lightning’ continues in the same style, alternated shouted and growled vocals over a breakneck riff charging past in a three and a half minute track that whilst lacking a solo, instead manages to sneak in not one but two break downs for pit ninjas to practise their spin kicks to. It is on title track ‘Life’s a Gamble’ that the band not just wear their Pantera love on their sleeves, but practically stick a Confederate Weed flag out the speakers and wave it in your face, the vocalist nailing Anselmo’s snarl, even if the long awaited guitar solo that finally arrives cannot hold a match to any produced by Mr Abbott.
So, have I made it obvious that the album sounds like a chugging Pantera tribute yet? If not, the band do, hammering it home relentlessly on track after track; I even had a rye laugh at the title of the track ‘Evolution’ as the only change seemed to be to add a wee dash of Hatebreed’s sound into the mix, and I imagined the whole band stood in a line, adorned in immaculate matching baseball caps nodding away in time to the bass. There’s nothing wrong with having influences, but despite repeated listens to ‘Life’s A Gamble’ none of the tracks seemed to have their own identity, but rather sounded like a band desperate to imitate their idols. As such the album may well appeal to younger hardcore fans who didn’t live through the original onslaught of The Cowboys From Hell, but to me, the album just needed an injection of originality. I just kept thinking of Brian Posehn’s ‘Metal By Numbers’; listen to that easily found track after hearing this album, and I think you might well agree.
(5/10 Spenny)
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