UMUR "Black Faith" is the 4th full-length studio album by UK metal act Cancer. The album was released through East West/Warner Music in 1995. The band´s first three albums were released on the small independent label Vinyl Solutions, but somehow Cancer attracted the attention of East West/Warner Music for a worldwide distribution deal.

Cancer started life as a death metal act and their first two albums are classic UK death metal albums. On their third full-length studio album "The Sins of Mankind (1993)", they started playing a more thrash metal oriented style (still with death metal traits). "Black Faith" sees the band move in yet another musical direction. Actually the music on "Black Faith" sounds so vastly different from the music on "The Sins of Mankind (1993)", that it´s hard to believe that it´s actually the same lineup who recorded the two albums.

Gone are any signs that Cancer were once a death metal act. Instead we´re treated to an industrial tinged thrash metal style that at various times throughout the album reminds me of artists like Ministry, Coroner, Killing Joke and Prong. It´s well played, well produced and well written and although the quality of the music might be a little below the quality of the output by the above mentioned acts, "Black Faith" is still a pretty strong release that could well be of interest to fans of the style.

More conservative death metal fans, who were already disappointed by the direction Cancer took on "The Sins of Mankind (1993)", probably won´t find much to enjoy here though. While the music is mostly mid-paced and heavy there are faster paced moments on the album too. For example the punk riffs in "White Desire" or the aggressive thrashy riffing in "Kill Date". The industrial tinged cover of Deep Purple´s "Space Truckin" is pretty entertaining too. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is warranted.