Throughout Metal’s history, there have been a legion of bands that have never managed to reach mainstream status within their genre but still inspire a great deal of respect and devotion. One such name is Cianide, the long-standing Chicago Death Metal band that have conferred themselves to writing some of the heaviest Death/Doom on the planet, something they calcified with their debut ‘The Dying Truth’.
By the time this album emerged, Death/Doom was beginning to express its gloom through melody and gothic flourishes, courtesy of the Peaceville Three. Cianide, however, carved out a different path, a more stripped down version of what acts such as Autopsy, Asphyx or Winter were doing. There’s no room for harmony or romantic atmosphere here, only crushing riffs delivered like blunt-force trauma.
The key to this was the engineering of a gross guitar tone, filthy to the core. There is no doubt the source of inspiration is Celtic Frost/Hellhammer and Traditional Doom. The extremely low tuning gives the riffs a fuzzy, abrasive weight, complemented by a dense, thick bass tone that lets the songs reverberate with both heaviness and groove. The drum mix hits the sweet spot: the kick is muted, the snare cuts through, and together they help conjure an ominous, menacing pulse. On top of it all, we have the excellent vocals of Mike Perun, whose low and tortured growls work perfectly with the crawling tempos.
Cianide delivered a near perfect first album here. It perfectly conveys the dread and suffocating atmosphere of Death/Doom, but re-invented. You can hear the aforementioned Celtic Frost/Hellhammer, Sabbath, Trouble riffs but mutated into grotesque abominations. I always feel drenched in grime after the record ceases which seems to be its intention. An album that will unleash your inner caveman and has no pretentions of being anything other than an exercise in knuckle-dragging Metal.
