CADAVER “The Age Of The Offended”
By Dr. Abner Mality
If you’re looking for extreme metal that’s off the wall and more than a little loopy, CADAVER is a natural choice. These Norwegians have never been predictable or cookie cutter in what they do...they’ve stuck to death during the years when every other Norwegian band adopted facepaint and burned churches (or claimed to). But their brand of death metal cannot be easily lumped with usual tags like “Swedish chainsaw death metal”, “Florida style death metal”, “death-doom”, etc., etc. They’ve done things their own way and each album has a distinct sound.
That brings us to “The Age of The Offended”. This is one wild trip down the rabbit hole. To say it is quirky is an understatement and that begins with opening intro “Sycophant’s Swing”, which features trombone. From there, each song wildly lurches around almost in a drunken, drug-addled haze. The vocals throughout the album are unique...somewhat like black metal raspiness, but multi-layered and somewhat robotic. They add their own layer of individuality. There’s a variety of speeds….from the steady lope of the title track to the warped and woozy stagger of “The Drowning Man”, from the speedy onslaught of “The Sicker, The Better” to the choppy semi-industrial crunch of “The Shrink”.
As for guitar solos, they are soaked in enough acid to kill a bus-full of Deadheads. I don’t know if I’ve heard crazier guitar this year than what shows up on the insane “Dissolving Chaos”, which has a sleazy blues feel punctuated by bonkers guitar noise. In contrast, “Deadly Metal” is almost conventional in its approach. You just don’t know what “Age Of The Offended” will throw at you next. Only you can be sure it’s heavy.
Not everything works well...a couple of tracks like “Postapocalyptic Grinding” and “Death Revealed” are on the average side...but it’s refreshing to hear an album that creates its own universe, that doesn’t sound like just another knock-off of tropes worn smooth by decades of repetition. CADAVER do things their way and that’s worthy of respect.