For those of you with more, ahem, “traditional” tastes Crossfaith are going to annoy and possibly upset you quite a large amount, if you are the sort of person that feels it is your duty to wage war on “False Metal” on internet forums the world over then set your phasers to Troll and point them in this direction. Although, before you get into too much of a lather, just be aware that however negatively you feel about them and no matter how much they infuriate you Crossfaith are going to be absolutely enormous. And there is nothing any of us can do to stop it.
It’s hardly a new phenomenon, the amalgam of heavy music with Dance and Electronica, but what the ‘Zion EP’ does just takes the Rave-Metal genre up another notch. There is, in theory, something for everyone over the course of these six tracks. Always liked the idea but feel that Fear Factory and Pitchshifter sound too dated? This sounds current to both Metal and Dance circles. Think that Enter Shikari are too lightweight? This is genuinely brutal in parts. Wish Ministry had more tunes? This is bursting with anthemic moments. In the same way as Rage Against The Machine’s debut album split it’s Rock and Rap influence clean down the middle, Crossfaith make you scratch your head in confusion of what sort of band they actually are. Opener ‘Monolith’ rides along on a huge wob-wobbing breakbeat that would suggest they are a Dance act experimenting with guitars, yet ‘Jagerbomb’ is pure Pantera Groove-Metal with an underlying dash of synth. It does what the very best music should do, confuse, confound, surprise and delight all at the same time.
If, of course, you are one of the grumpy lot that I mentioned at the top of this review then you may not even give it the chance to do any of those things. Quite frankly if the breakdown the ‘Quaser’ dropped in front of Stephen Hawking I’d expect him to hop out of his chair and start waggling a glow stick, it really is that irresistible. The future has arrived, and it is called Crossfaith.
