Cryptic Slaughter Speak your Peace

Cryptic Slaughter 'Speak your Peace' (Metal Blade Records, 1990)

I remember back in the mists of time when Zoff (AKA Paul Engage as he would become known in the hardcore scene) would make his near weekly announcements at school; 'Do you think Kreator are fast? Wait until you hear Nuclear Assault!', 'So you think Nuclear Assault are fast? Wait until you hear Cryptic Slaughter!', 'So you think Cryptic Slaughter are fast? Wait until you hear Napalm Death!' Of course that was the end of the pace race and I moved from Dundee and had to start finding faster and faster bands for myself. However, due to photographs I'd seen of the band looking like skaters and reviews I'd read in Metal Forces, the name Cryptic Slaughter and the notion of the fastest hardcore band in the world stuck with me.

As with many bands, due to lack of finances, I came to Cryptic Slaughter too late and missed buying their 'classics' by three or four records. This 1990 release reveals a band well over the hill and bereft of any good ideas or particular originality. Once again I will invoke crossover, but this is crossover which has gone for the technical side of thrash rather than the beefy mosh friendly tones of Anthrax and the Bay Area scene.

The stoppy, starty attempts at technicality really grate coming across like a retarded Voivod. The terrible vocal delivery further enhances the similarities to the vastly overrated Canucks. 'Speak your Peace' is a plodding bore.

Peace