Cross Examination preview

Cross Examination
Reggie’s Rock Club, Chicago
Monday, August 4, 2008

Ironically, the tour calling itself Thrash And Burn that stops at the Pearl Room in Mokena Monday night is not be the thrashiest show in Chicagoland that evening.

In fact, we’re not even sure how Revolver magazine (the sponsor) could, in good conscience, tag the word “thrash” on any tour featuring mallcore heroes like Darkest Hour, Winds Of Plague, Stick To Your Guns, and Parkway Drive. Cross Examination, along with fellow openers Diamond Plate and Deadnight and headliners Hatchet, play the real Thrash And Burn show that night at Reggie’s, roughly 30 miles from Mokena.

The St. Louis band won our hearts by covering “I Shot The Devil” on their 2006 EP, The Hung Jury. “Trip At The Brain,” “Join The Army,” or “Possessed To Skate” would have been radder choices, but we’ll take ST (one of the most underrated metal bands ever) anyway we can get it (CS also include a version of S.O.D.’s “Kill Yourself”). Like Municipal Waste, their bong-ripping, 40 oz.-chugging, hearty partying can be overbearing (nobody can really drink this much beer or eat this much pizza), but it’s also incredibly infectious in song form on Hung Jury and their recently released debut full-length, Menace II Sobriety (an album title Ugly Kid Joe used in 1995), both courtesy of Brookfield-based Organized Crime Records. The first pressing of Sobriety comes with a 24-page comic-book, Tales From The Keg, too.

Non-thrashers Wings Of Severance also play.

– Trevor Fisher

Click here to download Cross Examination’s “Party Squad Unite.”

Click here to watch a member Cross Examination do a beer bong between vehicles traveling 88 miles per hour, side-by-side, down a highway.

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly