Anyone who is remotely familiar with the Australian hardcore scene should know the infamous name of Michael Crafter by now. For those of you that don’t; he was the on-again/off-again singer of Adelaide’s I Killed The Prom Queen, brief vocalist for Bury Your Dead and Carpathian, short-lived inmate in the Big Brother house, proprietor of an on-line T-shirt shop and now singer for Confession. The common trend in all of this is that he has not spent too long on any one project, and this has led to a lot of angst among fans.

It would be safe to assume after that extensive résumé that Crafter would have a polished voice or ever perhaps one of the best going around. That however isn’t the case – a fact that has only shown up on the self-titled album from his latest project Confession. While the vocals aren’t terrible they just aren’t outstanding - at this point in his career they probably aren’t going to get much better.

Musically the band is made up of members from other hardcore bands from around Australia including Deez Nuts and 50 Lions. Unfortunately like most of Crafter’s music the band is vocally driven and the musical talent that is there is hidden behind his vaguely audible pseudo-screams. There is at least some shining moments where the music comes through and rather than just endless breakdowns there is some melody.

At the end of it Cancer really is disappointing – with the musical pedigree that’s behind it the results should have been a lot better. The music is mostly the same throughout the entire album and the singing is sub-par. Hopefully if Crafter’s track record stays true these guys won’t be around long enough to be nuisance.

Michael Wickham

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