It’s been two years since their last release and the Spanish quintet CrisiX are now on their fourth album and have maintained the same line-up for the last three. Their highly energetic brand of thrash is fast and bouncy and I’m certain would quickly get a mosh pit moving when played live.
And speaking of playing live, that’s not the premise of album opener “Get Out of My Head”, which is all about the memes that are all over the radio and become earworms you can’t get rid of until you listen to some decent metal.
“Leech Breeder” is slightly slower with a punchy guitar groove by B.B. Plaza and Albert Requena over Dani Ramis’s popping bass and the snap of Javi Carrión’s snare. Juli Bazooka’s vocals go from thrashy to slightly hoarser screeches as he gets into the swing of things.
The stop-go drum tempo on “Technophiliac” is matched perfectly by the guitar rhythm and has Juli throw in a couple roars during the chorus for good measure, while the leads are far more flowing and make a great juxtaposition.
Starting slow but exploding quickly, “Perseverance” is filled with rapid triplets and a nice groove that works really well for the breakdown and bluesy lead.
Depending on the species, “Xenomorph Blood” can be pretty nasty stuff and the machine gun drum fills give an indication of one of the only ways to keep it at a safe distance, or is that just the pace you should be running to make sure you keep well away from that face-hugger?
Maintaining the blistering pace “Prince of Saiyans” has a slightly slower chorus where the harmony vocals give it a softer edge, which the verses make certain is rather short-lived.
The choppy and bouncy “Leave Your God Behind” varies its paces as goes from verse to chorus, but maintains a great energy that is carried forth into “Cut the Shit” which has a bit of a punkier feel to it as the buzzing guitars and hardcore shouting are used to drive the message home.
The final track, “The North Remembers”, is also the longest on the album, but only coming in at 5 minutes, but unlike the rest which pack their punch and then end, this one builds far more slowly with a rolling drum beat that eventually hits its stride then relaxes a little for the chorus before setting off again.
Good solid thrash, if that’s what you’re after, but breaking new boundaries it is not.
(7/10 – Marco Gaminara)
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