Scum

Gospels for the Sick (Candlelight)
by Rick Florino

Scum should be a hell of a lot better than they are. The blender puree of Casey Chaos (Amen), Samoth (Emperor), Faust (Emperor), Cosmocrator (Mindgrinder), and Happy Tom (Turbonegro) tastes extremely sour, when it should be extreme metal gold. Driven primarily by Chaos’s punky rasp, the songs downplay Faust and Samoth’s legendary metal muscle and sound like crappy Amen B-sides. Rather than crossing black metal and punk, tracks like “Protest Life” and “Night of 1,000 Deaths” pit the two genres against each other. The metal and punk contingents within Scum vie for your attention, but neither is worth it.
(www.candlelightrecordsusa.com)