Unitron To the Gory End is the debut studio album from death metal band Cancer.

While death metal first started to form back in the mid-late 80's, with bands like Death and Possessed spear-heading the genre (although Sepultura came earlier as a prototype), death metal really took off at the beginning of the decade of the 90's. Groups such as Morbid Angel, Deicide, Carcass, and Entombed really got the genre on full-speed, with Cannibal Corpse and Suffocation pushing forward with the most brutal end of the spectrum.

One of the more forgotten acts of the old school death metal scene is Cancer, which came onto the scene with their debut studio album in 1990. Immediately with the opening raw bark on opening track "Blood Bath", you know you're in for some classic old school death metal greatness with a blistering assault of thumping drums and razor-sharp riffs. That's not all though, as just take a listen to "C.F.C. (Cancer Fucking Cancer)" and "Die Die" and just try not to get addicted to those grooves. In fact, there's tons of great grooves here mixed in with the intense speed, "Into the Acid" especially showcases this blend well. "Witch Hunt" and "Body Count" also have this terrific fusion of rapid speeds and punchy riffs.

As you would get from the song titles and album cover, the lyrics are fun gore-centered lyrics for the whole family. Songs about bodies lying in radiation pits, limbs rotting, and smashing through one's skull is sure to bring a smile to any old school death metal fan's face. Also, the album flows really well. The album and songs are short, avoiding any monotony.

While it's no Alters of Madness or Necroticism, To the Gory End is quite a killer debut and an underrated gem in the old school death scene. If you like your death metal fast, groovy, gruesome, and short this would be a great choice.

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UMUR "To the Gory End" is the debut full-length studio album by UK death metal act Cancer. The album was released through Vinyl Solution in May 1990 which makes it one of the earliest examples of UK death metal. The UK scene was initiated a few years later than the US one. Most UK acts like Napalm Death, Carcass and Bolt Thrower played grindcore or grindcore influenced death metal in the late eighties before turning to "pure" death metal on their early nineties albums. To the Gory End was produced by prolific US producer Scott Burns but not recorded at Morrisound Studios. Instead the album was recorded at LOCO Studios Usk.

The music on "To the Gory End" is pretty fierce death metal with touches of aggressive late eighties thrash metal. The vocals are not deep growls but rather a more high pitched snarl. The musicianship are tight and the music delivered with the right amount of brutal passion and conviction. The sound production is decent for the time, and suits the music, but not without flaws. It´s very raw and the guitar tone is not always pleasant sounding. "To the Gory End" is widely considered a classic UK death metal album and tracks like "Blood Bath", "C. F. C. (Cancer Fucking Cancer)" and "Die Die" (which features John Tardy from Obituary on backing vocals) certainly deserve to be called classic death metal tracks. Not all of the remaining tracks are equally as noteworthy though, but the quality is decent throughout.

Overall "To the Gory End" is a solid UK death metal release. I wouldn´t call it outstanding, because of the more unremarkable tracks on the album, but as mentioned above there are a couple of gems on the album and a 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating isn´t all wrong.