UMUR "Second Life" is the second demo recording by US, Chicago, Illinois based death metal act Cianide. The demo was independently released in 1991. Cianide formed in 1988 and released the "Funeral" demo in 1990. A demo which introduced Cianides sludgy/stoner doom influenced death metal style.

The sludgy sound, fuzzy tone, and stoner doomy influence is continued on "Second Life", which features five tracks which would all be re-recorded and included on Cianide´s debut full-length studio album "The Dying Truth" (June 1992, Grind Core International). These demo versions feature slightly more dominant growling vocals which are also a bit more aggressive than the almost sedated emotionless growling vocals on the debut album, so the vocals alone make it worth giving "Second Life" a listen even if you already own "The Dying Truth". To my ears these raw demo versions are equally as great as the studio versions.

The sound quality is decent although a bit rough around the edges but it´s not exactly like "The Dying Truth" features pristine production values either, so fans of the band probably won´t mind the organic, raw, and heavy sounding production job featured on "Second Life". A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is warranted.

UMUR "Funeral" is the first demo recording by US, Chicago, Illinois based death metal act Cianide. The demo was independently released in 1990. Cianide formed in 1988 and this demo features the original trio incarnation of the band: Scott Carroll (guitars), Mike Perun (vocals, bass), and Carlos Mendoza (drums).

The demo features two tracks and a total playing time of 6:33 minutes. "Funeral" would make it unto Cianide´s debut full-length studio album "The Dying Truth" (June 1992, Grind Core International) in a re-recorded version, while "Choose Your Death" is exclusive to this demo. "Funeral" shows Cianide´s future sludgy/stoner influenced doomy death metal style. "Choose Your Death" is slightly faster but ultimately also less interesting.

The demo features a decent although pretty distorted demo sound quality, but considering that this is a first demo recording Cianide already show promise. A 2.5 - 3 star (55%) rating is warranted.

Time Signature Rising of the beast...

Genre: old school death metal

Every now and then you come across an album that makes you go "Fuck yeah!". Cianide's aptly titled "Gods of Death" is full of such fuck-yeah moments - especially if you like old school death metal, because, although released in 2011, it sounds like it was released in 1991.

The listener is treated to authentic old school death metal from one of the oldest death metal bands around. The only modern element to be heard on this album is a couple of well placed blast beats. Everything else is old school - crushingly old school. The listener is treated to primitive death metal riffs intertwined with thrashy sections and heavy doom-laden passages, as heard in 'Dead and Rotten'. At times, the music even goes off in a dirty crusty and hardcorish direction, as in 'Rising of the Beast' and 'Terrorstrikes', while the massive 'The One True Death' features a plethora of different types of riff, all of which have one thing in common: they kick ass... very hard.

Do not expect hyper modern tech death. This is old school death metal the way it sounded when it was born. If you like your Autopsy and your Obituary, then you are likely to really enjoy Cianide's "Gods of Death"!

Time Signature Death metal maniac...

Genre: death metal

Behold the re-issue of death metal act Cianide's 2005-album Hell's Rebirth - complete with no less than six bonus tracks, five of which are demo-versions of songs already on the album.

The album was originally released in 2005, but it sound like it is from 1994, as it contains pure old school death metal. Now, this should be no big surprise, seeing that Cianide were indeed part of the first death metal wave and have been wreaking havoc since the early 1990s. Thus, we are treated to heavy, and often primitive (which is a good thing, I hasten to add) riffs mixed with one-stringed tremolo death metal chaos as well as more thrashy riffage, accompanied by straight up old school metal drumming and a bass that is nearly inaudible, but whose presence is felt in the fat bottom (pun unintended) that characterizes the old school brutality of the production of the album. Some tracks like 'Curse of the Dead' have a nice thumping groove to them, and there is also a certain touch of crust to be heard on the album (most prominently in 'Powerhead')

While not overly technical, the song in this album do contain a considerable about of changes, and in that respect, their music is not dissimilar to Morta Skuld. Also, blastbeat-sections do pop up every now and then, but whenever they do, they are more akin to old school death-grind along the lines of Symphonies of Sickness-era Carcass, early 90s Napalm Death, and early Bolt Thrower.

Primitive and old school, the songs on this album are nonetheless quite compelling and have the power to draw you in and set your body to moshing mode. Thus, fans of old school death metal are bound to adore this moshfest of a reissue.

(review originally posted at seaoftranquility.org)