AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: CRS — “THE FAILURE”

CRS – L-R – Tavo Ramirez (Drums), Kello Gonzalez (Bass), Kaith Danzig (guest vocals) – Hideki Inukai (Guitar), Sir Oz (Vocals), Francisco Oroz (Guitar)
Photo Credit – Carlos Hemosillo

It’s fair to say that the Mexican death metal band CRS has had an epic history, one that included breaking ground long ago, vanishing for an extended period, and becoming revived in more ways than one. As a new sign of that revival CRS decided to do something they’ve never done before, to record a song that fully pushes their talents into the realm of melodic death metal. As a further variation, they brought on Kath Danzig from the Mexican death metal band Enterrador as a guest vocalist.

This new song, “The Failure“, which we’re happily premiering today with an official video, presents a grim and furious message but one whose truth is difficult to deny. The band explain: “The Failure‘ talks about how we, as a human race, have failed. Not caring about tomorrow, nor the young ones, we are a failure. A disgrace to intelligence. How there is no empathy, just emptiness”.

Before we get to “The Failure“, we want to quickly flesh out our previous comments about the band’s history for those who may be running into them for the first time.

Hailing from Sonora, Mexico, they began back in 1991 under the name Cirrosis, ultimately creating death metal with punishing but technical riffs and melodic solos. Their first demo, La Tierra de la Adicción, was released in 1996, and their debut album Reciclando Desesperación came out three years later. But in 2001 the band broke up.

Concreto Records decided to reissue Reciclando Desesperación in 2014, and in 2019, CRS returned after that very long hiatus to record their second studio album, The Collector of Truths (also released by Concreto Records), which featured Kevin Talley (Dying Fetus, Suffocation, Chimaira) on drums, and Linus Klausenitzer (Obscura, Alkaloid) on bass. In September 2020, CRS recorded a Live Session for the Mexican online festival “Moshfest” which became an EP called Live in isolotation, featuring Kello Gonzalez on bass, who became an official member on December 2021.

And to round out the history, 2022 brought a new CRS single titled “The enemy has always been me”, as well as the band’s first live performance after twenty years last October, sharing the stage with Sepultura. On that same date, Hideki Inukai joined the band on the second guitar, fleshing out a line-up that included original vocalist Sir Oz and original guitarist Francisco “Chucky” Oroz.

With that history in mind, now let’s turn to “The Failure“.

It won’t take long to realize that “The Failure” drives hard, with galloping and hammering grooves that quickly trigger muscle reactions, coupled with blazing riffs and a bracing tandem of death metal gutturals, voicing words in both Spanish and English, who give the song a grim and raging aspect and add to the fire when Kath Danzig screams.

It’s a pulse-punching, highly headbangable experience, in which the rhythm section repeatedly take center stage, but there’s no mistaking the sorrow in some of the song’s melodies and also in the dual-guitar leads that later come to the fore. On top of all that, the soloing goes off like supernatural fireworks, and jittery fleet-fingered fretwork adds to the music’s electricity.

Maybe needless to say, the rhythmic and melodic hooks in the song are damned potent, and they make it something that quickly becomes addictive to hear. Great video too:

 

 

Interestingly, the band have shared that this song wasn’t originally written for them, but they liked it so much that they kept it, and some of the freshness came from thinking that it was originally intended for someone else. It comes recommended for fans of Meshuggah, Fear Factory, and Carcass.

For more info about the release of the song, check the links below.

https://www.facebook.com/crsmetalband/
https://www.youtube.com/@CRSBAND