City Of Steel

Saskatoon's Untimely Demise are interesting proposition, fraught with contradictions, musical misdirection, and therefore bound to surprise quite a few folks with their Sonic Unyon debut, City of Steel. Upon first listen, the power trio's peculiar brand of death/thrash metal sounds raw as sushi and distinctly unsophisticated, no thanks to all-around frontman (all vocals, lead, rhythm and acoustic guitars, the credits say) Matt Cuthbertson, who rasps and spits his colorful ditties about the apocalypse, pure evil, and all things nasty with the convincing rage of Donald Duck being served against his wishes on a Chinese restaurant platter. But, in time, Cuthbertson's fluid and florid guitar work yanks back the coarse camouflage that hides this trio's impressive instrumental abilities and broader songwriting palette. The title track's jagged, riffing architecture immediately reveals the influence of Rust in Peace-era Megadeth (made all the more ironic by the fact that present-day Megadeth guitarist Glen Drover produced this release), the melodic intro to "Unmaker" duly gives way to an intricate thrasher reminiscent of Death Angel, and recurring glimpses of commercial peak Exodus (think Fabulous Disaster) abound in the violent sounds of "Virtue in Death" and "Streets of Vice." At the end of the day, if one could review City of Steel by simply sticking a pin into a world map, Untimely Demise would probably be located not in Canada, but somewhere between the San Francisco Bay Area (circa 1984) and Gothenburg, Sweden (in the mid- to late '90s), which may technically be impossible, but, well, you get the picture.