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Well, if you're to go by the press release of Krossbreed's second demo, you'd be expecting some technical and speedy Thrash. With a name that makes them sound like a hardcore band, and their first demo being called Down to the Core, I questioned that straight from the off, and upon actually listening to this demo, my thoughts were somewhat confirmed. The overt thrashy-ness may have been present on their first two demos, but on Carved in Stone they splash out a wet puddle of chugging half thrash-core that leaves a lot to be desired.

Sure they're somewhat thrashy in parts, but the (at times) shockingly sloppy guitar playing and mid-tempo low tuned Chaos A.D styled arse-ache really leaves me questioning how these guys managed to play Wacken Open Air's 'metal battle' and rank 4th out of 15. Throughout, I was just sitting waiting for the Thrash to kick in, for some higher tempos, but those dreams are never realized in reality. Unfortunately, the shouty vocals don't add much to the already fairly thin package, neither do the cobbled together song arrangements (just listening to clumsy opener 'Legacy' tripping over itself over and over, before heading into a seemingly randomly tacked on acoustic ending doesn't exactly inspire confidence for the remaining 4 tracks that lay ahead).

Tired and uninspiring, Krossbreed could really use some time to re-think their 'metal' strategy. Uhhmm, nice semi-professional packaging though(!).