Reviewer: Chris

Release Date: June 8, 2010
Label: Ibex Moon Records 

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Cardiac Arrest - Haven for the Insane

TRACK LISTING

1.  Insanity's Grip
2.  Mind and Body Deteriorated
3.  Against their Will
4.  Paralyzed with Fear
5.  Haunted Remnants
6.  Embrace the Aftermath
7.  Twitching at the Noose
8.  Rage on... Fuck Off
9.  Extinction Endured
10.  Affliction of the Beast
11.  Unearhtly Pleasures
12.  The Blade That Reaps

Total playing time:  48:11

United States death metal is one of the ugliest, most brutal musical forms on this forsaken planet, there’s no question. It’s a beautiful thing that only the chosen few among the populous will ever truly understand. To most it’s chaotic noise, directionless and trite, but for those of us that know what a genuine form it is it can be voluminous in its aura. In essence, it’s music for those that can understand its sincere insanity and charm.

Cardiac Arrest, guys from my hometown of Chicago, slays the senses the very second “Insanity’s Grip” kicks into your ears. Coming off an equally brutal Cadaverous Presence the latest offering titled Haven for the Insane shatters any insinuations that death metal has hit a stagnant wall of late. Holy hell, this CD is heavy and destructive! Adam Scott’s and Tom Knizer’s dual guitar shredding, along with combined vocal duties, created one of the better death metal offerings I’ve heard from a U.S. band in some time! While managing to combine our own local death metal sound with some of the Swedish sound, the result is a chaotic 45-plus minutes of sheer intensity not for the faint-hearted!

“Mind and Body Deteriorated” is the type of track that can cause fits of mental derangement if you’re so inclined, while the *cough* slower-paced “Haunted Remnants” is both technically concise and primitively savage, a perfect mixture not often found done to such a fine degree. When death metal creates a feel of both chaos and groove in its music, the result is special and, sadly, rare, but Cardiac Arrest finds the coupling letter-perfect. I simply am astounded by this CD, my friends!

The sound on the CD is very clear, mixing the instruments as cleanly as possible for a death metal release. The drumming never drowns the guitars and the bass is certainly vital in the mix. When the vocals growl and screech their way over the tapestry of death dirges on Haven for the Insane it makes for a CD you can certainly come back to again and again for your fix of ear-splitting violence put to music. I simply cannot recommend this CD any higher.

Gore never sounded so good! You simply cannot find death metal this good anymore, and that’s a damn shame. Thankfully Cardiac Arrest, a band shredding since 1997, can be claimed as one of our own with very good reason. They have been consistently good over the course of two EP’s and two full-length offerings, so do yourself a service and allow yourself to be appropriately gored into submission. 

June 8, 2010