I'm feeling a lil' daunted having to do this review, as I know these guys personally. Of course this does mean I know a lot about the band including things you wouldn't find on the official bio. This is their second release, the first being the demo 'Plankton' which they released in November 2001. It included 4 tracks, which can still be downloaded from their site. Their first gig ever was actually opening for Canadian metallers Kittie, after simply having sent in a demotape. Ever since, things have only gotten better. Having done 3 tours through Eastern Europe and played on some big festivals this year, namely Rock Am Ring, Rock Im Park and the Dutch Fields Of Rock they've been pretty busy! They are often described as being one of Holland's most promising bands! These guys are really at making it big! They might be a Dutch band though they're actually only 3/5's Dutch. Drummer Sky Hahn is half American and Yoav Zouker is an Israeli! Their bio describes them as dynamic thrash... though personally this made me frown. When I think of trash, my mind goes to early Metallica, or Exodus or Megadeth and these guys certainly have very little in common with them. The term dynamic is a good description though. Furthermore I'd say these guys bring a freshness with their sound... it might be the blue colour that I associate with them, but there's something very refined, something not raw, but gentle about the music. I find it very hard to describe this, because they really do make heavy, heavy music with raw distorted guitars. Anyway, I'd better get on to what Cancelled is all about! First off... something about the figurehead of Cancelled: I was chatting with Yoav one day and we were discussing his lyrics and he replied by saying: "We will do interview! See, that rhymes, which means my lyrics rule!". Allright, so he (and the others) have a little fucked up humour, but seriously, his lyrics really do rule! The thing I really like about the lyrics is how I couldn´t find anything that he could have copied from another band and that's what bothers me so much with other (especially mainstream bands) nowadays. How people just express themselves in an unimaginative way which has been done to death over and over again. What's more important than that though, is that Yoav's lyrics don't just touch everyday topics, alot of it is clearly inspired by his heritage. The song 'Below' is about Israel and how so many lives have just been wasted due to all the bullshit that's been going on so long there. I must admit, I got a lot more respect for these guys when I finally checked out the lyrics. Yoav's singing is quite impressive on these songs, though he tends to strain his throat during his live performance... Fortunately he makes up for this with his heavy grunts! In fact, at one time during one of their tours through Eastern Europe, he was grunting so much and in such a heavy way, fans thought they were a death metalband! I've been talking about the vocals and lyrics alot now, but this doesn't mean the rest of the music is bad, in fact it's great! Their sound is usually compared to bands like Tool, Machine Head and System of a Down... This is quite right, though it's actually more of a perfect blending of these three that creates an entirely new sound! Still heavy as fuck like the early Machine Head (especially live), but the freaky melodic way of Tool is there too. I find it very unfortunate that there aren't any solo's on any of these songs, though this does not mean they just play simple nu-metal riffs coz they can't do anything complicating! Having been in the rehearsal room with Robert Bouws (ex-Immortal Slave) and Daan Vonk (ex-Motherfed) while they were just mucking about, playing solo's and improvising like mad I know they have plenty of talent to go round! Most guitar parts are technical, heavy and complicated, just the way I like them... Joeri 'Spit' van Hilten (ex-Bloodsessions) is a great guy who knows exactly how to work his bass. He loves to jump onstage and he does so without missing a note! Of course I can't not mention Sky, who's done some great drumming on these three songs. Though I had to get used to the intro in 'Below' because of the weird stops and go's. Sky has also been involved on a project named Kcuf, which also included vocalist/entertainer Crazy White Sean, guitarist Clyde Shorey (ex-Artery), bassist John "Tumor"(ex-Snot and Amen, now in Mortha) and guitarist/ bassist Jeff Myers (ex-dredful). After this Kcuf was joined by guitarist Munky (Korn) and bassist Shavo (System of a Down). These recordings will be remixed by Sid Wilson of Slipknot. The future of Cancelled seems to be a good one, though there's still much work to be done... I´ve already heard some new songs and they are very very promising indeed! They plan to go a faster, thrashier way and from what I heard... they´re keeping up that promise. This CD-single should be available all over Europe, but in case you need to ask for it and they haven't got it... you can always download the three songs and more on their website! And I highly recommend you do... (ROAR E-zine – NL – September by Kris)