Cemetery Lust – Screams Of The Violated

Portland, Oregon’s Cemetery Lust are very sincere flatterers of the early extreme thrash metal invasion’s pillars: Slayer, Kreator, and a few others. On Screams Of The Violated, the revivalists’s eight song re-release, it pays homage to these forerunner bands in spades. To state this more plainly, these guys sound like Hell Awaits era Slayer, with all the music’s bells and whistles, but with a ‘budget’, Haunting the Chapel-derived mix. Cemetery Lust ends up a ‘store brand’, sort of like an economy version of the kings of speed metal.

Bass guitar and drums are solid, and hold up tunes which are almost entirely fast paced. “Ressurected Whore” and “Black Angels of Hell” have fantastic mid-tempo break sections, guaranteed to be neck-snapping moments. Speed metal riffing, choppy chugging, and divebomb aplomb sear through the guitar lines and solos. Welcomed guitar solos are blazing fast, without too much articulation, a la King / Hanneman at their respective heights. Vocals are a little forward, a little loud within the mix, which sounds very thoroughly ‘analog’. The third song, “Sexual Maniac”, has the first intelligible vocal on the disc, it’s chorus.

The main criticism is, as with most budget-recorded underground music in an oversaturated playing space, that the mix is unflattering to Cemetery Lust, and unsatisfying. The bass guitar tends to be buried, and the drums have a hollow, 20′ away vibe. Doomier sections of the music tend to be too trebly to have any real sludgy, creepy effect. The entire mix would be aided with some low end. While this overall sound appeals to a certain niche of listeners, it also relegates the band to more or less permanent underground status, something their apparent musical ‘mentor’, Slayer, was not content to remain. Screams Of The Violated is nowhere near terrible; in fact, these songs sound like they’d be ten times better live. The disc is a very fun listen if you’re a fan of mid to late 80s speed and thrash metal, or if you’re feeling hyper, angry, or inspired.

Track listing:
Throw the Switch
Perverted Aggressor
Sexual Maniac
Resurected Whore
Black Angels of Hell
Demonic Dementia
Possessed Confessions
Night of the Creep