The huge thrash explosion that occurred in the mid-early 80's gave birth to hordes and hordes of thrash metal bands with almost no distinguished sound of their own, and during the late 80's and early 90's, there were so many bands that it was impossible to keep count. Lost of good bands got lost in the violent stream of bands, yet now, with the help of the internet, people are able to discover hidden gems and demos that were buried deep within debris and rubble. Caustic Affliction are such an obscure act (though no surprise since they only released only one demo and then disbanded) that even many hardcore thrash fans wouldn't have heard of them, and the truth is, their awareness wouldn't really provide them any valuable information, but a demo like this is nothing more than a simple, enjoyable listen and nice little addition to your library of old school rarities.
Caustic Affliction carry simple influences and simple aspects in their music, the sort of savage and chord driven attacks of the likes of early Kreator, Armoros and even Morbid Saint. The songs are all concise and very pleasuring, thus the riffs are made of good material, but this material is material that anyone can attain with ease, and Caustic Affliction simply reflect the primitive, bestial thrash metal stylings of early Kreator, with a hint of crossover energy. Every track is short of storm that never fails to devastate the listener with its sheer speed and violent array of simplistic riffs, sharp and crushing, though most of the quality of the riffs get gnawed and corroded once they collide with their own own speed. It's very fast, no doubt, and the adrenaline is just over the top, but like many metal bands that incorporate a little too much speed into their riffs, the riffs on this demo loose their efficiency and their flashiness while in a desperate urge to speed things up. The introduction instrumental ''Refuse To Die'' is a diverse little track, where the speed doesn't occasionally tend to be uncontrolled. And ''Caustic Affliction'' has some wicked melodies and catchy grooves to make up for that loss of quality, and they do succeed, but not for the most part, unfortunately.
The demo speeds up so much that it sometimes adopts a speed/thrash sound, and while I normally love speed/thrash bands, Caustic Affliction fail to achieve the same sort of robust sound when brutal riffs mix with faster ones. That's just one formula that has to be done right, or else it would be pretty meaningless. Had these thrashers written more tracks like ''Caustic Affliction'' or ''Refuse To Die'', then I would have liked this demo more than I do now. Of course, don't take my word too seriously if you're a fan of fast, pulverizing thrash, because you may never know unless you try it. The simple and painful truth is that this just isn't constructed well enough to be an effort to be taken very seriously, and more diversity is always an essential if you want some spiky, dynamic music. This demo's pretty damn catchy, and it's definitely worth a listen once in a while, so do check it out, because you may like it more than I did.
Highlights
''Caustic Affliction''
''Cremation''
''Refuse To Die''
Final Rating
Mediocre [7.8/10]
