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MEMENTO MORI to release demo compilation of ’90s cult CROSS FADE

Memento Mori is beyond stoked to announce the release of a CD that will compile all three demos by the obscure U.S. band Cross Fade.

Cross Fade was formed in Mastic (Long Island, N.Y.) in March of 1991. Scot Trollan (at the time 21, vocals), John Tinger (at the time 23, guitars), Eric Rhodes (at the time 18, drums), and John Colucco (at the time 21, bass) would form one the most intense bands to ever rule a stage. Cross Fade was fortunate to have spawned and thrived in the primordial era of Long Island death metal, a force to be reckoned with amongst other global metal sounds. And Cross Fade was there, absorbing it and spitting out their own unique brand of extreme music – a band with infinite potential, gaining speed and ferocity only to implode like a black star in 1994; a band whose live sound was 100 times more intense than on tape.

Cross Fade looked to create fresh, diverse extreme sounds, with various influences ranging from Pink Floyd and Primus to Deicide, Suffocation, and Cannibal Corpse. A socially aware band, the lyrics dealt with subjects like religious falsehood, global colonialism, pollution, and mental illness. A constant on the live front, Cross Fade played early backyard and legion hall shows with what would become and continue to be the core of LIDM (Internal Bleeding, Pyrexia, and Suffocation), and would cut their teeth on the stages of infamous N.Y. clubs like L’Amour, Sundance, Sparks, and The Roxy, sharing the large stage opening for bands such as Morbid Angel, Sorrow, Internal Bleeding, and Pro-Pain. Cross Fade was prolific in the underground zine and trading scene, sending out hundreds of demos to fanzines and metal fans at cost, as well as handing out hundreds of free demos at the many many live shows and events they did.

With the release of the self-titled demo in January 1992, the band showed where both them and the extreme sounds of the next century were going. Releasing the infamous Ruined demo later that year, Cross Fade was quickly becoming recognized as a force in the underground. Ferocious, moving, intense, intelligent: the band had established its sound and started doing out-of-state shows. In 1993, the band continued to play, promote, create, write, and record, but the cracks of doom started to show. Internal creative tensions, commitments to responsibilities, all the things that come with being in a real band, were starting to weigh, all the while making the sound sharper, meaner, more complex, more musical. 1994 led to the very limited release of the Untitled demo. This one was barely promoted or handed out, and the pressures of recording were enough to drive a final wedge in the band and ultimately lead it to ruin.

The band was never heard from again as Cross Fade…until now. The two remaining members of Cross Fade, namely Scot and Colluco, are creating some new Cross Fade music in memory of their fallen brother Eric Rhodes (RIP). Two songs are currently in the works, with the sound having a heavy futuristic edge. Commitments keep Tinger from contributing to the writing; ee will hopefully end up providing solos.

FFO: spastic-yet-catchy, ridiculously dynamic, highly original, fucked-up death metal with a vocalist that sounds like a mentally deranged John Tardy on crystal meth.

This compilation CD will be titled Return to Planet Hell (1992-1994), and Memento Mori will put it out in 2021. Further details to follow in the coming months. Meanwhile, feel free to listen to the demos on YouTube:

Cross Fade demo (1992): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7tPj5eXIPs
Ruined demo (1992): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcNQRoxNbas
Untitled demo (1994): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYsBGm1TakU

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