During pride month (dear reader, we are traveling back to June for this bit; this Delorean can go 88 MPH, no fear), there is an abundance of reality to celebrate. One of my favorites is how nothing is ever just one thing: whether that’s those who exist within a spectrum or even those who contain multitudes. Having pride in all aspects of your identity only enhances the ways you can be yourself and a better version for those around you. How this relates to Cronos Compulsion is legion; however, what I want to focus on here is the genuinely subtle layering at the core of Lawgiver. “But this is a brutal death metal/noise record; where’s the subtlety?” you shout at me. That’s the point, and maybe it’s from decades of seeking out those fun little strata within extreme music. However, I believe it’s central to the band’s success (and they agree with me). Lawgiver is damn catchy, maybe not with the kind of radio hooks you expect, but whether it’s a breakdown, a lyrical motif, or just the kind of riff that forces you to make the kind of face that looks like you’re holding in a fart, Cronos Compulsion have you covered. That was entirely non-accidental as bassist Addison Herron-Wheeler says:
“Wil writes most of the music, and I provide a lot of input and come up with some riffs. It’s funny because my dad, who raised me and recently passed away, used to really harp on songs having a hook or being catchy. He challenged me on some death metal and extreme metal because he couldn’t find the hook. So even though we’re writing pretty inaccessible music to a lot of folks, I think at least on a subconscious level, it’s important for me to keep it catchy and memorable.”
“It’s funny because when we’re all on the road together,” vocalist/guitarist Wil Wilson adds, “there’s a lot of disagreement with who gets control of the music! We realized looking at this question that the bands we all really love and agree on are Cannibal Corpse, Meshuggah, System of a Down, and Black Sabbath. While we all share a love of death metal and extreme death metal in general, we’re not purists by any means. We take a wide variety of influences from grind, hardcore, deathcore, jazz, slam, brutal death metal, black metal…I think in general we all just like aggressive, challenging music.”
Lawgiver is out on Friday, and you can order it here. Follow Cronos Compulsion on Facebook for future updates.
Photo Credit: Jeff Tidwell
