Band:	Cretin
Album:	Stranger
Style:	Death metal, Grindcore
Release date:	December 05, 2014
A review by:	X-Ray Rod

01. It
02. Ghost Of Teeth And Hair
03. The Beast And The Drowning Bucket
04. Knights Of The Rail
05. We Live In A Cave
06. Sandwich For The Attic Angel
07. Stranger
08. Mister Frye, The Janitor Guy
09. Mary Is Coming
10. Honey And Venom
11. Freakery
12. They Buried The Lunchbox
13. Husband?
14. How To Wreck Your Life In Three Days

Cretin! Damn that was a name I haven't heard in a while. I bet some things have changed (Oooh hoho!).

A few years back I found the debut just winking at me at the local store. While scared shitless for the hallucination, I bought the album out of curiosity. This wish to know more was probably inspired both by the so bad-it's-awesome artwork and the hilarious stories for each song. So when their sophomore album arrived at my virtual door, I was very curious to see how the band evolved (hah!) after so many years.

First of all, love the artwork. Dig the colors and texture. The music hit me hard the first time as well. The songwriting is way more varied and the guitar work is definitely more entertaining. The riffs are just killer now and the solos keep things fresh enough throughout the whole album. The vocals didn't change though (Haha? Ok, I'm done. Sorry). Unfortunately the same problem I encountered the first time came along. During the second half I just felt like I heard it already but I continued because I'm a professional *chuckles* and because I needed to read the next weird story (seriously, check some of the lyrics. Ghost Of Teeth And Hair is awesome). The difference now is that the déjà vu was felt much later than with the debut, all thanks to the improved songwriting.

So... Yeah. Cretin have clearly improved their music and image (:3). Stranger is a short and effective album to get your groovy and no-bullshit deathgrind fix and if they keep improving things at this rate I'm sure even greater things will arrive in the future.