CoC : The Evil Cell - The Evil Cell / The Evil Cell

The Evil Cell - _The Evil Cell_
The Evil Cell - _The Evil Cell II_
by: Quentin Kalis (3 / 3 out of 5)

The Evil Cell embodies a range of styles. For example, _TEC_ opener "Just Out of Reach" starts with a Santana-like riff before venturing into Atheist-esque old school death metal. Elsewhere, "The Grind" off _TECII_ is strongly influenced by industrial, while a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" adds a rock flavour to the mix. But all this is mere background noise for the true focus of these demos, namely sole member Eric Sperr's considerable guitar playing skills, as the two demos abound with leads and virtuoso guitar playing. Surprisingly, there are a few moments of self-deprecatory humour. The drumming on both demos is low key, repetitive and actually quite boring, probably so as to not detract from his guitar playing. Individually, most of these songs are pretty good (barring "The Grind"), but played back to back the demos simply do not flow and sound somewhat disjointed. Clearly, Sperr is comfortable with the guitar; however some more attention needs to be paid to the songwriting process.

Contact: http://www.theevilcell.com

(article published 9/7/2003)