Through the cracks of death, arise an abscess, or should I say the Abscess. Abscess is a brutal death grind band hailing from California. With their latest release "Through the Cracks of Death" they are now a band that finally has found a solid record label in Peaceville Records. As their name suggests, they are a gore band. And as with most gore bands, their lyrics are anything but normal. The lyrics aren't the only weird thing about this band, their music is quite interesting also, but not in the good way. Their riffs created by Clint Bower and Danny Coralles are hardly anything that would keep me coming back for more. The solos are somewhat enjoyable, but don't add much to the table either. I feel pretty much the same about the rest of the musicianship too. At times this hits almost a crawl speed, and at others it's faster, but never enjoyable. The vokills drummer Chris Reifert combined with guitarist Clint Bower fit the whole "below par" feel of the album perfectly. At times they have the whole average death sound to them and at others they just sound plain odd. It's something you'd have to hear to understand what I'm talking about. The production is about average. This is the type of sound that feels really grungy and muddled, hardly the kind that can be appreciated and/or enjoyed. As I mentioned above the lyrics follow the topic of gore. The lyrics contain some interesting writing, but quite putrid and uninspired. Overall, this is a below average release and can easily be overlooked by most. If you're a hardcore gore fan then this might be worth checking into, but other then that I'd say don't bother with it; plain and simple.