CARDIAC ARREST

Do not attempt to adjust your controls, peons, because someone time-warped NASUM into Sunlight Studios circa the first DISMEMBER record! Holy hell, this is some welcome ear candy for any old-schooler worth their REPULSION back patch — flailing blast beats, buzzsaw riffs, deep Swede-like death vocals and a truckload-of-tar production that doesn't so much showcase the riffs as encase them in molasses and dare them to escape the filthy, bass-y murk.

CARDIAC ARREST are from Chicago, a town where old metalheads never get the memo that they're old and it's time to mellow out, and bands can and do go on for decades on end (hello, everyone from MACABRE to CIANIDE to JOHNNY VOMIT). Thus, these aging dudes can sound like they're eighteen and just biting into their first piece of studio time, and still come off as off-the-rails insane, half in the bag and making the most of those off-peak hours to crank out their masterpiece in as few takes as possible. Yeah, it doesn't sound at all like a modern-day, Pro-tooled, over-compressed, over-bright gleaming studio turd, and thank fuck for that — this is raw, rough, and blown-out, and it would suck if it sounded any other way at all.

Definitely think along the lines of REPULSION or old ABSCESS for the wild-eyed, loose and clattering vibe on display here, but sonically, these guys are like GRAVE on trucker speed. The early Swedish death metal sound and the spazzy mince-core blasting are a killer combination, as charismatic and catchy as it is brutal and neck-snapping. Ripping solos, guttural proclamations, and rhythms that sound like a downshifting truck full of lead backing over the corpses of lesser bands. What the hell else do you want?

CARDIAC ARREST should hopefully escape the clutches of Chicagoland and make a larger name for themselves with this low-budget slab of asphalt. The CD includes a bonus DVD with 90 minutes of live and interview footage, as if you needed any more incentive to go support this unrepentantly old school band of Luddite bastards. Mandatory!