Review: Cretin – Stranger

Cretin - Stranger[avatar user=”Mosh” size=”50″ align=”left” /]Late in the evening and late after release (Stranger came out in December) but after coming across the album by my usual method – randomly selected from the 200+ outstanding promos we have! – I just had to write some words to try and make up for missing it when it first came in.

Stranger is Cretin’s first release in eight years and for those who’ve been waiting, they’ve not let you down. This is crushing grindcore of the highest standard… or the lowest echelons of taste. Which is kind of the same thing. Musically it’s gloriously brutal. The soundwaves alone are enough to turn your flayed corpse into the subject matter for one of their songs, but the lyrics are the real stars of the show.

Demented, twisted and sick they’re somewhat more convoluted than the straightforward butchery of Cannibal Corpse, but less dictionary-requiring than Carcass’ early works. To give you an example from “Ghost of Teeth and Hair”:

gross. they say i ate you in the womb, that mom had no room. your teeth, hair & fingernails in my brain explain why i’m not smart. doctors cut you out. mom kept you in a baggie. i glued your parts into a doll & do you like your little cape?

So, yeah. Erm. Hmm. Let’s just say I’d not personally be a fan of the band’s private video collection. But, shit, does it lend itself well to some heavy music.

If I have one problem with the album, it’s that it’s over far too quickly. But, hey, that’s why we have mp3 players with a “loop” function. Now let me go and wallow in this wonderful sickness just one more time…

Strangers is out through Relapse now

[cretin]

 

 

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