Nothing is insurmountable for Corrosive Elements.
Although they’ve kept a low profile lately, the band from the Paris region, comprising Rachid Trabelsi (drums, Conviction, Swamp Terror, ex-Moonskin…), Yves Pene (guitar, ex-Scolopendra), Tarik Usciati (guitar), Brice Moreau (vocals, Swamp Terror) and Thomas Humbert (bass) unveil their second album, Cut the Serpent’s Head, in 2024 via GreyveStorm productions, Crypt of Dr. Gore and Chien Noir Production.
The album kicks off with Conquering the Divine, an energetic and unifying Death/Thrash product that knows perfectly well how to be brutal when necessary, and doesn’t hesitate to accelerate at will. The band are sure to motivate their audience, just as they do with Ignorance is No Longer Bliss, which kicks into high gear again to place cutting melodies and gang choruses borrowed from Hardcore to strike with an extra dose of energy. The tortured solo confirms the increasingly aggressive approach also found on the vindictive So Long Sucker, a track with simple but still effective Punk touches before returning to a more impressive approach with The Unseen, a composition with a massive groove that doesn’t hide its jerky passages. The track is long and allows for some wilder explosions, before giving way to An American Hero, where the band is more reserved at first, but eventually gets us shaking our heads in rhythm with the musicians, who accelerate almost imperceptibly. The rather short composition is followed by the brutal Cut the Serpent’s Head, where the irregular rhythm reinforces the track’s unpredictability, alternating fast passages and solid moshparts to become a veritable outrageous anthem. We continue with Enter the Final State, which is firmly rooted in Thrash/Groove and straightforward patterns, followed by The Right to Remain Poor, which reminds me once again of the Hardcore atmosphere, while completing this approach with thick riffs and piercing leads. Among the Casualties opens with a sample of a Nelson Mandela speech, and while the track is denunciatory, it is nonetheless effective, coupling its violence with its lyrics. The lead part takes us to the explosive finale, followed by Fascistalism, a rather evocative neologism with which the band hits us one last time, prioritizing slowness to create a rather heavy climate before fading out.
With Cut the Serpent’s Head, Corrosive Elements has two objectives. If the first is fairly straightforward and consists of shoving slices of riffs in our faces, the second is to fight for causes close to their hearts. In both cases, the band is a hit.
90/100