It would make sense that a city like Clifton, New Jersey would be the home of a pretty thriving Jersey metal scene. Buried in the dense cloverleaf overpasses, perpetual road construction, acres and acres of parking lots and every single chain retailer on the face of the planet crammed into the concrete suburbs of New York City, Clifton seems like a place where you’d inevitably grow up pissed off, if not pissed on.  You know- the perfect combination for turning your amps up to deathly levels and blowing the aluminum door off the storage shed you rent for a practice space.  Clifton thrashcore kids DETH KAKTUS have released their debut album “Prick” on Wormholerecords, and it’s an apt soundtrack for the sordid periphery of the Big, rotten Apple. 

The album kicks off with the triumphant metallic riffing of “Evelyn.” Matt Garvey and Sean Orozco’s guitars beef up the melody, as Emmanuel Master’s pained screeches, coughed up through a sun-dried and rotten garden hose, leave an eternal splatter of phlegm across your face.  The music itself, while true to the foundational nature of thrash, is infused with modern day “-core” as communicated through Master’s vocals and the snare-heavy drumming of J Caesar Garcia. I’m not sure who Evelyn is, but it sounds like she wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of DETH KAKTUS. It’s like she’s kissed a prince and turned him into a rabid, one hundred kilogram cane toad.  “Gaza Strip Club” starts off with a doom-inspired riff, a slow plodding through the Jersey swamps before the guitars trade arpeggios and a staccato-like verse gives way to the double bass breakdown. Again, Master’s vocals are delivered as if through the severed tail pipe of a 2002 Ford Explorer that’s done one too many off-road trips to the pine barrens. “Southern Discomfort” seems to play homage to the band’s allegiance to stoner rock tropes, the sound of a bong over a bluesy CORROSION OF CONFORMITY, before finding a PANTERA-like comfort in a mid-tempoed groove.

The album hints at a lot of potential for this group of five eager metalheads from Clifton. While the production does a good job of entrenching the band in this late ‘80s, early ‘90s analog vibe, in the future they might benefit from a fatter production job, especially to keep up with Master’s death growls and hardcore grunts. The song-writing is eager, confident and- above all- fun. In a world that pretty much sucks hard no matter what direction you turn, DETH KAKTUS give you permission put your fists in the air, and forget about all the bullshit before you have to go back to the nine-to-five, surrounded by the pricks these kids named their album after.