Monday 26 May 2014

Carnifex - Die Without Hope (Album Review)


Album Type : Full Length
Date Released : 7/3/2014
Label : Nuclear Blast

Die Without Hope, track listing :

1. Salvation Is Dead
2. Dark Days
3. Condemned To Decay
4. Die Without Hope
5. Hatred And Slaughter
6. Dragged Into The Grave
7. Rotten Souls
8. Last Words
9. Reflection Of The Forgotten
10. Where The Light Dies

The Band :

Scott Lewis| vocals
Shawn Cameron | drums 
Cory Arford | guitar 
Fred Calderon | bass
Jordan Lockrey | guitar

Review :

California is a place renowned for hot days, hotter nights, superstars and models and high-class sleaze.  So finding out death metallers Carnifex come from San Diego hit me with some surprise.  Apparently, sunny dispositions aren’t as abundant in the Showbiz State as I previously thought… but no matter.  These angry, raucous gents have already surprised me, and continued to surprise me with their brand of dark, perverse death metal.  In fact, their latest release, ‘Die without Hope’, surprised me by bursting out of my computer, started a one-man mosh pit in my living room and then proceeded to give me a noogie for half an hour.  After the music disappeared with a piano-laden outro, I dusted myself off, put on my steel toe-capped boots and then played the album again.  As it came out of my speakers once more, I kicked it in the shins and then interrogated it at length about what makes it tick.  Here’s what I managed to discover:

Tell me about yourself:

I’m Carnifex’s fifth studio album, and their first for new label Nuclear Blast.  I kick like a mule, roar like a lion and attack my listeners without remorse.  Try me out: pick any track, I dare ya!  I double dare ya! 

You’re comprised of ten tracks of the meatiest, bloodiest death metal known to man.  What tracks should I listen to first? 

Pussy!  Try them all out!  Want slamming, punishing death that’ll grind your nose straight off your face?  ‘Condemned to Decay’ is the song I’d hurl at ya.  Want something that feels like being on a rollercoaster of whirling blades and gut-crushing twists and turns?  You’d want ‘Rotten Souls’ punched straight into your head.  No headphones.  No speakers.  Just the song, from the ether, shaped into a fist and punched straight into your head.  That’s how brutal I can get, buddy.  And don’t you forget it. 

What track do you want to be remembered for the most? 

What bullshit question is this?  Everything I have to show you is vital new American death metal, and don’t you forget it!  Want me to pick out one for you, Mr. Reviewer Guy?  My title track is worthy of your ears for its insidious intro that’ll sucker you into a false sense of security, then slam your head into the nearest wall and start moshing around your dazed body.  Sound like your kinda fun?  I bet it is, you vicious little death metal lover you. 

Any final comments before I send you back from whence you came? 

I am Carnifex’s album ‘Die without Hope’, and I am coming to tear your speakers and your eardrums apart! 

That was all I could get out of the album’s personification.  Without warning, it gave me a gut punch, laughed manically, and then disappeared in a puff of metaphor.  After several stiff drinks, I can only surmise that this music was so brutal that it caused a psychic event to occur to me.  So, I am going to dub ‘Die without Hope’ the Tyler Durden of death metal albums: and if that isn’t enough to make you want to listen to this, you’re obviously the wrong Space Monkey. 

Words by : Chris Markwell


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