This is the 2nd EP offering from Sweden's Carnalist, a band exploring the more technical, brutal side of death metal, but still retaining a degree of the Swedish sense of tone and melody. The five tracks here display some technical ability, and usually contain one or more decent riffs, but the material left little lasting impression."Genocide and the Supremacy of Aggression" creates spurts of razor honed thrashing riffs, but spends half its time noodling through far too many of them, without really settling in to kick your ass. Numerous brutal grooves dominate the vocal lines. "Thus Spoke the Butcher's Knife" is a rampant, chaotic piece not unlike a lot of discordant death/metalcore tech stuff out of Canada. "Malicious Compulsion" features carnal grooves of blistering thrash/death that explode into some big chords. Again, the track does feel a little loose because the band is constantly trying to throw something new at you, with very little to stick. "Surgical Deviance" enters the fray with subtly distorted acoustics, creating a powerful wall of chords that transform into a slamfest. Combined with the faster riffs near the latter half of the song, I found it perhaps the strongest here. "New Form of Life" is fast and wild with a nice breakdown or two.
The tone on the EP is very well adjusted to a mid tone you don't hear so often. I did feel the drums were a little thin and the bass somewhat weak, the crunch of the guitars and the vocals of Hampus Olsson take the center stage. Carnalist is not a band band, with a thicker sound to the drums (he's obviously very good, just not always audible) they could produce some punishing work.
Verdict: Indifference [6/10]
http://carnalist.com/
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