RSS Feed


CANCER VOID
First Metastasis EP

Me Saco Un Ojo / Iron Fortress (2025)
Rating: 7.5/10

Clouds over Prague in Czechia have become thicker and poisonous since the arrival of Cancer Void. Although lasting for a mere 20 minutes, this debut EP isn’t just turning heads in the death metal underground but tearing them off.

First Metastasis is somewhat typical of the sort of toxic noise being belched out by today’s scene: guttural vocals, a slightly dissonant and cavernous guitar tone, and a strong mix of putrid pace and slower, deviant morbidity. The sound sends chills of dampness as it effectively sprawls with a degree of macabre grandeur stifled with rot.

The cannibalistic combo thrives better when slithering from a location of deathly doom construction, churning sludge that runs through the deepest aeons of the band’s unhinged psyche. In their truest form of dismal horror, Cancer Void save their mightiest and mouldiest textures for the emphatic closing entity that is ‘Cosmic Caverns Of Extinction’, a harrowing quagmire of pus n’ ash boiling in its own riff piss and mutant muck as Carcass-styled riffs emerge yet delivered with less surgical aplomb, but instead a duller simplicity.

There are some devilish slices of snaking melody within this fetid bog as the guitar work squirm through the webs of dread like a spider weaving towards its flagging prey. Even with dire doses of thrashing anguish littering the EP, there remains a canopy of gloom, a stifling air of repugnant fumes as the steady flow of monstrous riffs signal the onset of ‘Breeding Pyramids’. The drums kick and rattle with eerie swagger, billowing dust through the wet mists as the doomy bass adjoins with the stinking riffs.

The vocals are typically bellowing, bordering on hoarse, and yes it’s all very familiar as the EP unravels. It is possible that Cancer Void could add themselves to the rancid pile of other bands in the scene and not really stand out, but when you treat such releases as standalone pieces then you get to appreciate them more. ‘Ammonia Baths’, accompanied by a cheesy video, is a pacier affair in spite of that forever staining wisp of gloom. The blusters are the usual modern day “old death” stylings, pulverising and macabre but catchy as Hell.

There’s nothing groundbreaking going on here, but First Metastasis enchants by simply being another very good death metal release.

Neil Arnold

<< Back to Album & EP Reviews



Related Posts via Categories
Share