UMUR "Bastards" is the 3rd full-length studio album by UK thrash metal act Cerebral Fix. The album was released through Roadrunner Records in October 1991. It´s the successor to "Tower of Spite" from 1990. A promotional video (which aired on MTV´s Headbangers Ball in those years) was shot for the track "Middle Third (Mono-Culture)".

Stylistically the material on "Bastards" continues the heavy and doomy thrash metal sound of "Tower of Spite (1991)" and the two albums are more or less sibling releases in my book. Sharp heavy riffs and rhythms and lead vocalist Simon Forrest snarling raw vocals in front. He has a rather distinct sounding voice and delivery, which is great most of the time, but his performance does get a little one-dimensional along the way. The band are well playing, although the drums are played a little "stiff" and uncreative.

The original vinyl version of the album featured 10 tracks, while the CD version featured 3 additional bonus tracks. Two of those are punk/hardcore covers of G.B.H. and The Damned, which Cerebral Fix run through in great style. Their hardcore past shines through here, but also a few other places in their own material, although it´s seldom on this album.

"Bastards" features a powerful and heavy sounding production job, but the production choices made on the drum sound aren´t the best, and the drums often sound a little disjointed from the rest of the instruments and vocals in the mix. Upon conclusion "Bastards" is a quality heavy thrash metal release though, and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

Vim Fuego Cerebral Fix flew beneath the radar in the wider metal world, but those who happened to discover this band still talk of them fondly. Their sound was uncompromisingly heavy, coming from the same school of hard knocks as the better known Bolt Thrower and Benediction, throwing a big dose of UKHC attitude into a death/doom mix. Many bands played fast because that’s what was expected of them, and as a result, the music suffered. Often, the musicians simply weren’t nimble enough to play at high velocity. Whether Cerebral Fix played slower than other bands due to lack of skill or because that’s the way they always intended to play matters little. What it did mean was that the music pounded hard and heavy. With Cerebral Fix, you’re not going to get songs about titties n’ beer, and the music matches the thought provoking lyrics. There is somewhat of a political slant here, although not near as radical as the likes of Extreme Noise Terror. Fantasy also features strongly, but then issues like environmental damage and drug addiction are also tackled. Most disturbing is ‘Ritual Abuse’, with the lyrics on ritualised child abuse enough to make your spine tingle. Lead off track ‘Bastards’ plays similar to Bolt Thrower’s ‘Through the Ages’, in that it is basically an instrumental with a spoken word list recited under it. The bastards are us. While the doom/death sound was never heavier, the Fix’s punk roots were showing. The last quarter of the album is made up of an early song re-recorded and a couple of covers. ‘Maimed to Beg’ came from Cerebral Fix’s first hard-to-find album, and has more of a hardcore feel than the rest of the album. It still grinds like a motherfucker though. GBH’s ‘No Survivors’ has a different feel again. The almost straight forward cover of The Damned’s ‘Smash It Up’ features Wolfsbane’s pre-Maiden Blaze Bayley on vocals, fucking about for all he was worth. For anyone who has never quite understood where bands like Cerebral Fix or Bolt Thrower evolved from, this little threesome highlights the steps along the way. There’s some heavy stuff here, both physically and emotionally, but there is also a bit of fun. It’s a microcosm of life. OK, so things can be serious and shitty at times, but there always has to be a bit of space to blow off steam. ‘Bastards’ is a buried treasure to be savoured.