Cephalic Carnage - Anomalies

[Red Hot Thumbtack In The Eye 0]

Rocky Mountain Hydrogrind madness tamed and tinkered with by the almighty hand of Relapse records and their current influence over the entire universe of Metal.

 

Production:

 

When someone signs you and pays for your weed and van gas, you can count on good studio sound. In this case, the sound is representative of all instruments while allowing room to roam both up and down the fret board on guitar and bass without losing any note range.

 

Review:

 

Coming out at a time when their labelmates Neurosis and Mastodon release highly influential slabs of what can be called Hydro Metal, Cephalic Carnage use their immense collective musical ability create a similar accelerated evolution in music, this time with Grindcore as their starting point. The main effect here is a fast maturing process of songwriting that leaves behind the sub one minute shock effect blast songs in favour of musical development and extension of ideas to their logical conclusion. The first noticeable victim of this ®evolution is out of left field mathematical riff and drum play of previous output that created a sense of real tension and need, replaced by known options that sadly look like a band settling on what they know will please the listener in the immediate time.

 

This is not to say that the band has nothing up their sleeve to suprise and engage the listener. Quite the opposite in fact. This album shows that the band has the ability to craft an entire album of material that doesn't rely on near interlude levels of wild noise breaks between 'proper' songs, even after 12 years of touring and writing. Riffs that seem to flatten the texture of guitar strings with their wild scaling friction are all but forgotten on this release in favour of more chord and lead play that pushes the tasteful drum and bass along with a sense of musical knowing that shows the band to be more than a one trick grind attack. Regardless of how questionable or not the motivation is behind the change in writing style on this album, it's an easy to make conession that each part fits with the others, no matter if they play blasting grind, slow doom/ death, or Rock N Roll.

 

Vocals are the big unexpected treat of this record, with Lenzig Leal showing strong range of attack, without relying on any one extreme or the other. Straight up open throat death croak and mid range growl dominate the proceedings with precious little (thankfully) cuffed mic gurgling and an oddly convincing rock n roll gravel croon even coming out, show that the vocalist has a decent sense of what can go where, even during playful indulgences on the album that are there for pure fun and ultimate live participation.

 

The real struggle for listeners of this album(those that know the previous output) is not whether this is a death metal album that pushes the boundaries, or even if it's a good album within the genre, it's the timing of the release. Where Mastodon followed Neurosis, it seems that Cephalic Carnage is following Mastodon, creating a three headed face to the new Relapse records sound that is bound to envelope the scene once people see the commercial success of these bands in a sense of extreme metal money. An enjoyable release which I won't dictate the ultimate worth of in the eternal sense. Undoubtedly, this is the sellout Cephalic Carnage album, but they still managed to create something that is worth attention.

[Red Hot Thumbtack In The Eye 0]

To follow up on this. After several listens, this album has very little replay value unless you want something different to hear every few months. Nothing sticks around as meaningful in the long run. It's purpose is likely best served as being background noise to a party/small gathering, or driving with a car load of people on the way to a show.