Band:	Cypher
Album:	Darkday Carnival
Style:	Thrash metal
Release date:	October 2006
A review by:	Marcel Hubregtse

01. Fortune My Foe
02. Handfull Of Darkness
03. Nailed To Redemption
04. Rape The Willing
05. Statues Of Flesh
06. Make Thick My Blood
07. Intersection Of Constraints
08. Forward Devolution
09. Darkday Carnival
    1 - Feast
    2 - Whoring The Land
    3 - Maggotnation

After having re-released five classic Dutch bands as their Dutch Metal Cult Series the fledgling Rusty Cage Records now presents us their first signing: the Dutch death/thrash combo Cypher. Darkday Carnival was released in the Benelux on October 31st and will hit the stores across Europe and the USA this month.
Darkday Carnival is presented in a glossy digipak which immediately catches the eye with its tight and beautiful design. It's one of those covers that would have you pick it up immediately and listen to it if it were released on 12" vinyl. But unfortunately we live in the age of small cd formats nowadays.
Okay, so what's the music like? As stated earlier, Cypher plays death/thrash. Not the old school type but the modern Swedish inspired version, although Cypher is more brutal then 90 per cent of what comes out of Sweden at the moment.
The album starts off with the aggressive Fortune My Foe , which sets the tone for the rest of the album: Well produced and unrelenting, grabbing the listener by the throat from the word go. The following four songs carry on in more or less the same vein without any single song really standing out, although Rape The Willing doe feature Robbe K.'s (Arsebreed, Disavowed) guest vocals.
With Make Thick My Blood more variation kicks in, and not a moment too soon for me. The riffs become more memorable and the hooks and breaks somehow hit home harder than those of the first four songs. Make Thick My Blood is followed by what for me is the best song of the album: Intersection Of Constraints which contains superb riffing and drumming, growls that suit the music perfectly and a break to die for this side of Eden. Intersection Of Constraints has everything for it to become a live fan favourite.
What often happens with debut releases such as Darkday Carnival on starting labelsis that the production spoils the potential of the music. Luckily, here the production, mixing and mastering done by Jochem Jacobs of Textures only helps accentuate Cypher's strong points. So, leaving the listener with a very good professional first impression.
All in all Darkday Carnival is a very strong debut by a young Dutch band on a young Dutch label and bodes well for the future.
Now, if you don't mind, I'll go back to listening to Make Thick My Blood, Intersection Of Constraints, and the triptych Darkday Carnival: I - Feast II - Whoring The Land III - Maggotnation again.