Cross Up Yours - "Holy Shit"

After a 90 second intro filled with eerie keys and bible quotes read in a demonic tone, Cross Up Yours kick into the namesake track from their debut EP "Holy Shit". It's slow, doomy opening riffs flows with tons of lead guitar solo's, then bursts into a flurry of tremolo riffery colliding with relentless double bass drumming provided by Kevin Talley(Dying Fetus, Chimaira, Daath, Six Feet Under). This tune bridges the gap from slamming classic death metal, to symphonic black metal evoking images of Vital Remains and early Cradle Of Filth. Cross Up Yours frontman Greg Bukinus(also the guitarist of NYDM Bronx veterans Demized) shows us here his songwriting prowess and pure musicianship as he performs vocals, guitar, bass and keys on all 3 of these brutal tracks. "Unforbidden Sin" pummels the listener with 4 minutes of machine-gun drumming, non stop riff-fest and unholy vocals that sound as if they are being vomited forth from the fiery underworld. Every few bars a different riff pops up in a different tempo and always keeps the listener on their toes not knowing what musical insanity to expect next. "Son Of A..." closes out this monstrous effort with stomping, headbanging evil death metal, that recalls glimpses of classic Morbid Angel and Behemoth. A thick slab of guitar wizardry, and spellbinding, mystical key patterns that satisfy your hunger for brutality, techinality and atmospheric melody as well. Cross Up Yours pummels and pounds sonically and they are relentless about it from start to finish. At 13 minutes total this short, but amazing effort from Cross Up Yours has pretty much everything the extreme metal fan could want. If this is just the beginning for Cross Up Yours than trust me, the future bodes well and holds big things for this band. This is basically a one man project, but dont let that deter you in any way, these songs were obviously worked on very hard, polished and honed and Mr. Talley throws down some of the best and fasest drumming I've heard him produce yet! And let's face it, Greg has a vision here, and sometimes the best way to get something done right, is to do it yourself rather than have other throw a wrench into what you want your output to be. I hope to see Cross Up Yours put together a live outfit and witness them slay the stages of the live scene. You can keep up with the band at www.facebook.com/crossupyours and you can also visit the website at http://www.crossupyours.com/ where you can purchase physical CD copies of "Holy Shit" as well as t-shirts. If your into brutal death and black metal at all, this EP deserves to be a part of your music library. You can hear cuts from this disk Thursday nights from 7pm to 10pm EST at www.brutalexistenceradio.com.