Band:	Circle Of Dead Children
Album:	Zero Comfort Margin
Style:	Grindcore
Release date:	2005
A review by:	Herzebeth

01. Forward Through The Copper Sun
02. Zero Comfort Margin
03. No Tears Fall Through Hollow Eye Sockets
04. Chemical Goat
05. Whimper
06. Android (120 ampere opiate)
07. Host (age)
08. Bohemian Grave
09. The System as The Master Deceiver
10. Born On A Bombshell
11. Strip Naked For The Killer
12. A Homage To Tombstone Granite
13. Footprints In Fire
14. Playdumb
15. For Black Eyes Only a.k.a. Depopulate: Tears Of Illuminati

What's left there to say about Circle Of Dead Children? Not much, their albums speak for themselves actually; The Genocide Machine and Human Harvest are both two of the most interesting and most worshiped albums in Grindcore history, not only for their chaotic and frenetic music but also for their critical and revolutionary way of writing lyrics (just read "Ctrl*Alt*Delete" from their 2001 album "The Genocide Machine"). That being said I'll start reviewing their latest work "Zero Comfort Margin".

They are back no doubt; the music is still raw and intense while the lyrics talk about weird philosophical matters, no problem there. But there are a couple of problems in here, the music, even though it's very aggressive, sounds quite plane and simplistic; most of the tracks grab the same structure and squeeze it until there's nothing left to squeeze, so they drop the layered scheme that their previous albums offered and that's a big turn-off for many fanatics.

I can take the flat songwriting and even the lack of complex energy in the tracks because Joe Horvath manages to impress the listener over and over again with his indescribable vocal style, and the music it's actually not that bad in the end (just average, but for a band like this one?damn!). What I seriously can't take it's the awful production in here, if the music sounds weak the production makes it sound even lame, the bass and the low tones are so drowned that you can only hear them in solos or intros, so this fact doesn't help this album at all.

Well, in the end it's Circle Of Dead Children my friends; Zero Comfort Margin is of course not their best album to date, but it's surely better than most Grindcore craps circulating the scene. I say skip this one and buy any other album from their older catalogue, if you already have all of their albums then get this one just to have a complete collection, just don't expect it to be as great as their previous works.

Best Tracks: "No Tears Fall Through Hallow Eye-Sockets", "For Black eyes Only, a.k.a Depopulate: Tears Of Illuminati", "Zero Comfort Margin"