Creation Is Crucifixion - "Rerecorded Tracks From the Vinyl Splits" ep

Something was definitely in the water in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania circa 1998 and 1999 that allowed this cold, small metropolis of under 300,000 people to spring forth upon our world some really, really good metal. Willowtip Records, still considered one of the best grind / death labels in the history of the universe (by me), released its first record, the Creation Is Crucifixion / Fate Of Icarus split 7". CIC would release two more splits, both with good bands from Arizona; Suicide Nation and Unruh. These three songs would eventually be rerecorded in 2000 and released as this CDep, in a very cool clamshell case with minimal yet very effective packaging. The recording quality of these new versions is better than the original releases, though not by very much. Quite frankly, this is among their best work. The song titles, lyrics, band information, etc is printed directly on the clear and white cd, thus eliminating the need for a paper insert of any kind. I dig it. Unfortunately the track listing printed on the disc, however, incorrectly gets the order of the first two songs backwards.

For those unfamiliar with the band, they played excellent grind that had a tendency to be rather tone-heavy in sound. Added to this were awesome high pitched, scraping, dual layered vocals that really always stuck with me. There wasn't much in the way of typical death metal "growls" found on CIC songs, with the exception of one or two jams that I can recall. The lyrics dealt with machinery, computers, resistance, wiring, programming and mention luddites on more than one occasion (which should give you a good overall impression of the bands viewpoints on the matter of tech). There were also lots of "ambient / noise" tracks that appeared on their records. This material never really did anything for me, and I always wished they would just knock that shit off and give me some more top quality metal. But, hey, I wasn't in the band and I'm sure some people enjoyed it.

CIC was made up of members of the mid-90s vegan metalcore bands Chapter and Abnegation, who you may remember released at split 7" together in 1996, maybe. Anyway, these guys showed a marked improvement over their former bands in almost every aspect, and yes I know early Abnegation was fucking awesome. Willowtip Records and bands like Creation Is Crucifixion, Commit Suicide, Circle Of Dead Children and the aforementioned Fate Of Icarus really gave Pittsburgh area metal kids something to be proud of. Five more reasons why The Keystone State is the best in the union, yo.

-we are progenitors to machine code-

Tracklisting (correct)
1) The Allegory of the Algorithim (Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Mimesis)
2) Subversion as a Tactical Metaphor AKA Species Traitor AKA Technology is Our Iron Lung
3) The Iconography of John Henry AKA Eliza Was a Program