After a number of demos, EPs and splits, Sinister found their home on Nuclear Blast Records in 1992 to issue their debut full-length effort, Cross the Styx. The Death Metal act stormed onto the scene with this release, and one listen makes it clear why that was so easy. As far as Death Metal goes, Cross the Styx by Sinister is considered one of the strongest debut releases for a band in that style, and given the crushing nature of the music on the album, especially for it's time, this is a statement that is rather hard to dispute.
Cross the Styx sets a grim path for the listener with the artwork alone, but enhances it all nicely with the introductory track "Carnifincina Scelesta", an ambient track of crains banging together, voices screaming, depicting the atmosphere of Hell nicely, or at least that of slaves aboard the ship transporting you to your final destination across the river Styx. With that set into motion, "Perennial Mourning" hammers in with it's intense and varying speeds, though being at a lower volume than "Carnifincina Scelesta", which actually isn't all that strange given the time of this album's conception, and not being one of the first Metal releases to have that same issue. Despite that quite obvious volume difference, the music here is solid, straight forward traditional Death Metal, having a slight groove to the chords, especially in "Doomed", but still has a dark and heavy edge to it that gives it an inescapable torturous vibe, as if the music is meant to tortment you, shaking you to your soul.
Often, the songs vary from one another, but the band is also not afraid to change things up within the song in quite dramatic ways. Again, "Doomed" really pushes that torturous vibe onto the listener, with it's crushing yet lightly groove seasoned riffs that will have the listener's head banging involuntarily at a slower pace. Out of nowhere, a little more then half way through, the band suddenly changes gears and unleashes some furious blast beats and grinds, as if a two faced creature playing coy, then suddenly going for the throat without pause or remorse. The music slows down again, then hammers back into that blast beat style near the end of the song for a fantastic solo, and a brutalizing ending to the track. It's this kind of sporadic take on Death Metal, coupled with the general dark and black atmosphere (as in bleak, no light, and not the style of music), coupled with well performed and inhumanly commanding gutterals that truly makes this song, as well as many other tracks on this release, stand out nicely. "Corridors to the Abyss" essentially follows the same structural concepts, except the song has a natural intimidating brutality to it, not coming off as two-faced, so when the blast beats hit, it's an expected go for the throat within a generally brutalizing track that manages to hold the same level of intensity behind the slower moments that the faster, more grinding elements of the track have.
The only real complaint that can had about this release is that the band seems to constantly use this set up throughout the recording. It's not a bad idea, as Sinister manages to do it quite well, especially with songs like "Corridors to the Abyss", but at the same time it becomes a little overused and even predictable. There are a few songs on here that don't really follow that pattern, such as "Perennial Mourning" and "Epoch of Denial", so there's atleast so breaking up of that element in the release, and those songs typically sound better then some of the more forced-sounding blast beats on tracks like "Putrefying Remains", where it doesn't feel like it was a natural element of the song. But, even though the blast beats are a little overused, the one thing that greatly saves this album in that department is the overall heaviness of the music. The guitars simply sound crushing, and the drums typically have a little more of a technical aspect to them outside of just being the same simple blast beats repeated over and over in every song. "Perpetual Damnation", for example, has plenty of changes throughout the song, including plenty of blast beats, but the drums manage to go off on a little non-blast beat pattern while hammering away, if even for a second, hitting snares or cymbols traditionally without that speed and fury they interrupt, and it's a welcome change in direction to this element of the recording before it awkwardly hammers into the "Outro", which again has volume levels like "Carnifincina Scelesta", but does feel more like the end of the journey over Styx laid out in the introductory track, making a suiting end to a bludgeoning album.
| 2011 Reissue (Altered Since Birth box set) |
Cross the Styx is the second CD included in the Sinister box set Altered Since Birth (1990-2010). This release, like all the others, comes in a digipack case that is nothing more then thick, folded cardboard paper with a nice gloss to it with the original artwork. There also is no booklet accompanying this case, but rather the notes are in the nintey-six page booklet that comes in the box set. The CD is digitally remastered through the twenty four bit process, and it sounds absolutely fantastic compared to the muddier quality of the initial press. Each song sounds sharp and crisp without becoming too clear to lose the edge and atmosphere of the music, or even remove any of the bite from the recording. In fact, it seems to make the album stronger in many ways, including making the songs just sound a little more burdening and heavy compared to the original. On top of this fantastic remastering job, there are two live tracks included as bonus material, which include live renditions of "Epoch of Denial" and "Cross the Styx".
Both songs have a great audio quality, though still clearly raw recordings with the vocals buried a little deeper in the audio. It's a nice addition that gives a good idea of what the band brings to their live performances, showing an energetic performance from a solid, mature act. The best part is that these tracks also coincide with one another. It's not like these were just two tracks randomly chosen from a set list and slapped on here with cheap fade cuts or awkward jumps from one song to the next. Instead, it's literally two tracks that were played back to back in the live performance, leaving no need for a cheesy transition. All of this really enhances the quality and experience that this edition of Cross the Styx gives off, making it a whole new experience without losing anything the original pressing had outside the obvious noise and muddiness of the initial pressing, which makes this release sound better then ever, even if you found all of that to work in the favor of the release to set a certain atmosphere or nostalgia to it. |
Cross the Styx falls prey to some repetition issues within the music thanks to the constant use of blast beats, and while it's a great idea that works well thanks to the overall heaviness of the release, it does tend to get a little irritating after a while. There are plenty of songs on here that show the band doesn't need to constantly shift to blast beats in their songs as much as they do, showing off the talent and potential the group has hidden underneath some mistakes that are bound to happen on a debut recording. Cross the Styx is an impressive album nonetheless, and really creates a dark, menacing, and all around punishing sound to their Death Metal that many bands of their time, and to this day still can't quite capture. If you haven't heard this release yet, there's simply no excuse, especially if you happen to be a fan of Death Metal. However, while the original pressing is still a great piece of Metal history, if you get the chance to pick up this version with the Altered Since Birth box set, it's definitely an opportunity you will want to take advantage of right away.
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