Anarchos - Descent Into the Maelstrom EP (2014)

The mass invocation of throwback death metal these past 5-10 years has proven a double-edged sword, simultaneously reminding us of what it was we so loved about the genre to begin with, while beating those aesthetics repeatedly into the dirt via the lack of nuance and distinction by so many of these newer bands. To be fair, I'm in the position of hearing more of these than the average listener will, and few of those spewing forth from the underground labels are truly terrible. In fact, I dig a number of them, some even managing to shake free the cauls of convention on subsequent records and become something truly buzzworthy...but most of them seem to flash in and out of the attention span quicker than I can recite the titles of their albums. Unfortunately, Dutchmen Anarchos are one such case with their Descent Into the Maelstrom EP.

There's nothing truly wrong or ineffective with this material, but it's ultimately just another paean to the early 90s, fusing together traits of the Dutch, Swedish and Floridian scenes into a groovy, unimposing brand of death metal. They don't necessarily aim to ape any one particular influence, but musically there are just so many callbacks to their inspirations that the songwriting doesn't feel fresh or compelling. Thick picked tremolo passages, meaty chords and eerie, dissonant solo outbursts recount Obituary during their prime (first two albums), while a lot of the note formations weren't unlike older Asphyx stuff. Vocals are like a median between John Tardy's grotesque growls and someone more blunt and direct like a Karl Willetts, while the bass lines are almost entirely dissolved beneath the weight of those crushing rhythms. I thought the drumming was solid...the kicks also have a tendency to become absorbed into other frequencies, but there is a nice mid-range potency to the snare which helps propel the entire proceedings unto their brutal end. But, even if I though the production here was perfectly serviceable on the whole, it's really the riffs and transitions which feel pretty scantily thrown together and don't have a lot of staying power.

Descent Into the Maelstrom isn't particularly atmospheric beyond the dense mix of instruments, and it also isn't interested in taking any risks beyond just those of playing to the nostalgic death metal audience. Which might be fine, if the songwriting was excellent, but when you're adding your two cents to a genre with such a long history, which already involves hundreds of phenomenal albums, it's quite difficult to stand out. And I personally just don't have much interest in trading down for music that mirrors but never attempts to exceed that which inspired it, stuff I was listening to in the 80s during my teens...unless it's incredibly catchy and well done, which this isn't. Descent falters for me because it achieves exactly what it sets out to do. Beyond that, Anarchos don't really fuck around. This isn't a 'bad' recording. They're not incompetent on their instruments, and they don't write crappy riffs, but neither do they write exemplary ones. Big, burly, by-the-books death metal for inexhaustible purists who crave simplicity, or simply haven't gotten enough of what they already love; otherwise, I'd give it a pass.

Verdict: Indifference [5.75/10]

https://www.facebook.com/anarchos666

Ribspreader - Meathymns (2014)

Rogga Johansson's death metal proliferation certainly leaves him at the disadvantage of spreading himself a little thin, and Ribspreader itself seems to have been a victim of the process. This was actually one of the first of his projects I got heavily into, but beyond the first couple albums I felt there were some diminishing returns as far as my excitement level. Recently, The Van Murders and the Kult of the Pneumatic Killrod double album were both decent offerings, but nothing to whip me into a frenzy like his work with Putrevore or Revolting, and Meathymns sort of continues this process of meting out solid, competent but ultimately somewhat ineffectual death metal with a heavy emphasis on the Swedish sound that so inspired Rogga in the first place.

This is a concise record that knows exactly what it's on about. Beefy rhythm guitars with a lot of thrash and punch to them which I'd liken to a blend of Heartwork-era Carcass, Dismember and Entombed, though the riffs are about 50/50 hit or miss in terms of becoming engraved on the listener's memory. A handful of more melodic tremolo picked riffs strewn about the grisly landscape, and a lot of low-end to the album in general thanks to Rogga's impenetrably consistent guttural which anyone used to Ribspreader, Revolting or Paganizer would be intimately familiar with. The drums generally shuffle along at a d-beat clip or similar pace which works well with the sinewy muted guitars, with a snappy enthusiasm to the snares. Lead guitars don't play a major role here, apart from some sporadic melodies, and I also felt like the bass lines weren't heavily involved in building an atmosphere, rather just adhering to the guitars and amplifying that bass. There are a few atmospheric breaks with dirty but less saturated sounding guitars, but they're not quite effective, and I'd have a hard time imagining Ribspreader go any further down this route...though I admit that the thought of several of these tunes with "Chapel of Ghouls" style synthesizers added might be refreshing.

Anyway, as the album title clarifies, this is meat & potato old school death metal which bears the loyal seal that its creator has stamped on dozens of records in the past decade, and there's not a lot more to rave on about. If you've been listening to the genre for that amount of time or longer, then it's easier to dismiss this as another jaunt down memory lane, a singular direction which lacks nuance and distinction among even Rogga's own body of work.  That said, there's very little of this guy's output which lacks at least some capacity for charm, and though a lot of the tunes suffer from excess sameness, it was fun to headbang along for 20-30 minutes. Not much of a transition or progression from that 2004-2005 period in which Bolted to the Cross and Congregating the Sick were unleashed (still the best from this project), but fans of Grave, Unleashed, early Dismember/Entombed or the first two Bloodbath discs might find in this a reliable backup to their favorites. I continue to admire Rogga's zeal for the genre, but I can't help but think that if he trimmed down the number of creative outlets he was involved with, the remainder would be that much more inspirational. Meathymns was a pretty average experience among his considerable canon.

Verdict: Indifference [6.25/10]

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ribspreader/148182408532846

Hail Spirit Noir - Oi Magoi (2014) *Album of the Month*

It is much to expect a metal album, or really any album, to take one on a journey, but the Hail Spirit Noir sophomore Oi Magoi surpasses such expectations with ease, offering a rare hybrid of psychedelic warmth, prog rock occultism, unusual instrumentation, eloquent and restrained sequences of orchestration, and mythopoesis. 50 minutes of contrasts between the sylvan glade orgies of mortals and ancient beings, and assertive black metal passages which exhibit both a contemporary sense of aggression and progression, without expressly alienating those of a more conservative genre mentality. There's not a lot to directly compare this with, but I might offer that it's a mash-up of aesthetics you'd find in bands as diverse as Ghost, Sarke and fellow Greeks Kawir. Some might chide the trio for latching onto the 'occult rock' bandwagon, but I can't say that they sound too directly similar to anyone currently exploring the sound; more of a straight bastardization of late 60s/70s psych rock, cult horror scores and intricately textured black metal; Coven's Witchcraft Destroys Minds & Reaps Souls topped off with some Spectral Lore or Acherontas, and for the past few weeks I have not been able to get enough of this fucking thing...

There are essentially two philosophies to this record, but each is comprised of a great deal of nuance and variation which ensure that very little predictability is maintained. You might catch on early that there will be haunting, wavering clean vocals, soaring ritualistic chants, and sugary bass grooves, but Hail Spirit Noir continue to exert their inventiveness through the implementation of flutes, percussion, and traditional sounds you're not going to find in a stock black metal experience. Within any sequence of measures, there will be something new evoked that further expands the repertoire of possibility, and while its true that most of the music's instrumental components have featured in other extreme metal outings, they've rarely been offered with this level of thematic cohesion. Production remains warm and vibrant, but the faster tremolo picked guitar explosions and harder hitting riffs lose nothing of the sinister nature they might provoke if mixed from a far rawer perspective. All of the vocals fit, from the Nocturno Culto growls to the folksier lamentations, to the distant, decrepit cries, and I couldn't help but feel like I was being sacrificed in the kindest way upon some altar around which satyrs and nymphs indulged in mutual, carnal affectations. It sounds really fucking whacko and it is, only Oi Magoi is in reality quite strictly balanced and controlled, never sloppy and never does any choice feel like it was out of place in the greater 'picture' of the album.

I would admit some preference towards particular tunes over others. For instance, the moody and trippy "Satan is Time" is simply the best song I've heard in 2014 thus far, while others like "Demon for a Day" or "Hunters" are merely excellent; but all of the content is addictive enough that its still recommended to tunnel straight through the record in order to the other side. Organs, synthesizers, bluesy ringing tones, black metal grooves redolent of Sweden's Head of the Demon, uncountable details that simmer and pop against the ritualistic black metal backdrop, it's as if Mortuary Drape and Goblin were asked to score some silent Hammer Horror film that had was just unburied from a vault of old reels. The black metal itself explores a vast palate, from the highly harmonic, driven and melodic ("Satyriko Orgio") to slower, eerie bits that remind one of ancient death metal if it had been delivered with less saturated distortion. The band even pulls off Hawaiian sounding surf-lite guitars, or passages that seem almost purely cinematic like the climactic swells you would experience in and Italian cult horror movie 30+ years ago, and even when they're committing to a more familiar, descending note pattern it feels fresh and refined, like it were the first time I had experienced it...

Not every riff is equally poignant, not every song infallible in sequence, but albums like Oi Magoi simply do not arrive each and every day of my life. It is the effort of cautious sonic experimentation, the principle of risk which exemplify the Greeks compositional choices. The call and response of the smooth and the jarring. It doesn't fit in seamlessly with the hipper occult doom rock stuff, due to its higher level of complexity, so I'm not sure that particular audience would appreciate all of the maudlin details and sentiments of antiquity, but it syncs up quite well for fans of visionary, gonzo black metal, surrealism and naughty Satanic acts performed in summery technicolor robes hung with garlands, rather than the flat blacks and crimsons normally associated with the subject matter. Not all is happiness here, in particular the vividly visceral lyrics, which cover cheery topics like gruesome sacrifices ("Blood Guru") or fiendish, flesh-rending sea creatures ("The Mermaid"), but it's totally that contrast beneath lush, verdant, watery climes and the horrific acts performed there which puts this over the top into 'unforgettable' territory.

Verdict: Epic Win [9.5/10] (THIS IS MY BLOOD!!)

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hail-Spirit-Noir/260062670728238

Anal Blasphemy/Forbidden Eye - The Perverse Worship of Satanic Sins EP (2014)

Beautiful, voluptuous blood-smeared nuns pleasuring themselves? I'd like two, please. So when I first laid eyes on this split's cover, I admit to spending some time in lecherous distraction, but soon realized that one of the acts, Finland's Anal Blasphemy was one I'd encountered prior, on the Perversions of Satan album a few years back (2012), which was put out through Hammer of Hate...and this was not the first sexy cover that Molestor Kadotus has given us (check out the Filth Union in Desecration split he did with Bloodhammer back in 2007). The guy has great taste in women, that I will tell you with absolutely no irony. The other band here, Forbidden Eye, is a Swiss outfit I'd never actually heard before, but they've put out a bunch of material through other obscure bands in the past. Bottom line: going off the logos and titles alone, I was expect the horniness to be conjoined with the hornyness, and to have mine ears raped by formidable, raw, bestial black metal with no apologies whatsoever for its cruel nature.

And would you know it? That's precisely what happened...not that I can vouch for either of the band's here writing top-notch, memorable material, but they certainly retain some loyalty to the sinister precepts of their genre and will not offend anyone seeking out the blood and brashness of influential records like Mayhem's Death Crush, Bathory's Under the Sign of the Black Mark, Blasphemy's blacker-tinted songs or about half the Finnish black metal underground. The Anal Blasphemy offerings are pure smutty Satanic fare ("Licking the Cunt of Chaos", "Sperm of Satan, Antichrist Semen") with raw guitars banging out familiar, crude riffs lacking any notion for melody or complexity, while the vocals have this extremely carnal rasp to them which is a little less sibilant and serpentine than many of their contemporaries, but had a lot of nasty sustain as they snarled out syllabic patterns. The drums here are storming and raw and not necessarily at the fore, while the bass just seems to follow the rhythm guitar. They get a bit more ambitious on the 9 minute piece "Birth-Death-Rebirth", with some slower rhythms that created a more compelling atmosphere for the horrific growls and rasps, plus the bass groove there was more alluring and hypnotic....also some a creepy film sample in there...was that actually from the fucking Masters of the Universe movie!?!

I found myself more partial to the Forbidden Eye material here, if mainly for the ways the guitars and vocals are mixed, with a nice, wretched mid-range to them that complemented the dreadful, hellish rasp of the front man Winter. The drums also crash along with a lot more force and attitude, and the chord progressions here have a little more swagger to them, at least in the track "The Moon and the Blood Serpent". They also seem to be focused more on the ritualistic/occult side of black metal, so several of the riffs have a more nocturnal majesty about them that is pretty in-line with a lot of stuff you'd expect from Finnish outfits like Horna, Sargeist, etc.; whereas Anal Blasphemy is all about sexualized evocations on a black altar. That said, this split functions because both of the groups do really complement one another. Production differences aside, they both play at a similar pace and complexity which is entirely a paean to the primitive, necro side of the genre, so don't go into this expecting symphonic arrangements and musical showmanship (beyond the one angelic intro piece on the second side). It's ugly, filthy fucking black metal, the way a lot of folks like to play it. The way a lot of folks like to listen to it. I'm hardly an exception, but overall I wouldn't say I found this to be particularly standout material...it's decent, and was a good introduction to Forbidden Eye, but I enjoyed Anal Blasphemy's two full-length records (Bestial Black Metal Filth, Perversions of Satan) more than the three songs here.

Verdict: Indifference [6.5/10]

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Anal-Blasphemy-official-perversions/127139764042160?fref=ts
https://www.facebook.com/forbiddeneye

Carnal Forge - Testify for My Victims (2007)

No matter how you slice it, Testify for My Victims is the best written of Carnal Forge's albums to date, and a very easy recommendation to make for anyone who is by this point still interested in Swedish melodic death metal of the 21st century, and I realize that is a diminishing (or long since diminished) group of people. Improving the archetypal death/thrash of their earlier material while simultaneously widening the level of variation in their songwriting, you've got light traces of groove metal or death & roll applied to the rigorous balance of melodies and punchy, clinical thrashing rhythms to die for, all delivered with the moderation and care of seasoned veterans. There is a depth to the composition which isn't necessarily a broad deviation from previous records, but even the basest chugging patterns here are glazed with just enough mood and melody to make them efficacious to explore.

Perhaps it's the most 'progressive' of their outings, and that's not a bad thing...you've still got much of that propulsive thrash pacing, but a lot more emphasis on mid-speed tunes that explore more complex bridge sections, and take more risks than the older albums without alienating anyone who enjoyed them. The mix here is probably the cleanest I've experienced, but there's quite a lot going on, and even if Testify... might not match its predecessors in sheer momentum and heaviness, it's just so more likely to be remembered weeks, months, or even years after you've heard it. I admit a little bias, since aesthetically this plays out like a kid sibling to Darkane's phenomenal Layers of Lies, one of the best records to ever emerge from this scene and be systematically ignored. It's artsy, modern, surgical in its musicianship, and at times profound, but most importantly it might have carried a note of nuance or originality if not for that other album predating it by a couple years. Not to write this off as some ripoff, because Carnal Forge always worked in parallel to several of their Swedish peers, but it's certainly an album that takes a few spins to fully appreciate and unravel, despite so much of the content being instantly accessible to the At the Gates/Soilwork fan. They obviously took more time releasing this than any of the older works, and it shows.

There's also a similarity to Darkane in vocals: new front man Jens C. Mortensen, who some might have remembered from the Swede-thrash act Slapdash in the 90s, has that same passionate desperate rasp that characterized a Lawrence Mackrory, or more specifically Andreas Sydow. You still get a smattering of the multi-tracked shouts, but Jens is somewhat superior to his predecessor Jonas Kjellgren at embedding some textured, harmonic howls into the verbal battery, while feeling really raw and off his fucking nuts the rest of the time. As clinically polished as the recording is, he always reminds you that this is essentially serial killer death/thrash and better embraces the psychopathy or sociopathy that subject matter entails. To an extent you can still trace the lineage back to Lindberg of At the Gates, but Jens makes it feel like you are being stabbed by a knife through some rift in reality opens up in a dank back-alley or a butcher-shop which is now being used for more nefarious purposes than cheeseburger patties. I don't have the fondest recollections of Slapdash's 240.25 Actual Reality but it was certainly energetic, and he surpasses himself this time around.

Another point in the record's favors is how the drums and bass here really seem to round out the rhythm guitars, rather than just stubbornly support them. The riffs are a little thinner in production, so a meatier warmth to the bass and potent snare strikes seem a better complement. For some reason I was reminded a lot of Tomas Haake's flawless industrialized-human-hybrid style, only Carnal Forge don't play in the same unusual time signatures and the guitars don't cultivate the traditional djent tone. Simpler groove/chugs here all seem to have a direction to them, pointing to the more accelerated passages and also the moodier, more atmospheric sequences. Lyrically, the themes here flow a better between the murderous mayhem that fascinated the Swedes on their earlier efforts to sacrilegious anthems like the wonderfully titled "Godsend Gods End". I really feel that passionate, personal torment and desperation that I so enjoyed on Darkane tracks like "Secondary Effects", and on occasion the meticulous melodies, pinpoint rhythmic punch and Mortensen's grating antipathy make me want to pull my own intestines out and then strangle other people with them...it's futurist, visceral fucking mayhem akin to a high definition slasher flick in which some stylish suit takes out his own imperfections on those around him, a Patrick Bateman for a Swedish Psycho and I heartily recommend it over anything they've ever done before; the promise of Please...die! embodied in the brash control of Layers in Lies, and still a lot of fun to experience years later. It doesn't look like much, but it sounds like much more.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10] (that mask: it's coming off now)

http://www.carnalforge.se/

Carnal Forge - Aren't You Dead Yet? (2004)

Aren't You Dead Yet?, not to be confused with Children of Bodom's Are You Dead Yet? the following year, or the Quarter-Facial Zombie Massacre, entirely unrelated, is a rather important effort on the Carnal Forge timeline. Not because of its significance to metal at large, mind you, because let's face it, this band had long been relegated to the lesser tier of Swedish exports; but because of its significance to the the band itself. You see, this was the final offering by the band's 'classic' lineup that had been meting out the blood, sweat and tears for a number of records, including Please...die!, which had been their best to date. More specifically, it would prove the last hurrah for vocalist Jonas Kjellgren, before focusing his attention on other bands like Scar Symmetry, in which he played guitar for awhile. Aren't You Dead Yet? also seemed to be the first album that put them squarely into the stock melodeath camp, exhibiting a lot more tiny, pretty guitar lines in amongst the rabid modern thrash median between Slayer and At the Gates which spawned their career.

Okay, when I say 'stock' I'm not implying that all of the Swedish bands sound the same, a sentiment I've seen expressed a number of times which is largely cow-patty...sure, a number of melodic death metal or older school Sunlight-tone death metal bands sound xeroxed from the originals, but this is by no means some trait unique to the country...why, the USA itself is ridden with doppelgangers across a number of styles, as is the remainder of Europe or the UK. Say what you want, but Hammerfall does not equal Opeth does not equal Entombed does not equal Candlemass does not equal Watain, and to assert otherwise is a statement of fuckwitted prejudice that screams to me 'I Hate Swedish Bands Because They Are Successful', and I've expressed in the past my feelings for this sort of overt, irrational, whiny faux-elitism, so to see so many bands of varying genres so often lumped together because of their nationalistic relativity is simply stunning. No, many of these bands got popular because they are good, or WERE good at some point; a judgement of value on a case-by-case basis just like any other scene. Yeah, a lot of them can tour, feed their families, and afford to have their records sound pretty sleek, but it's not some conspiracy. They're not out to 'get you'...the place has had great metal since the 80s, so no fucking surprise that it would pan out in all the subgenres later.
 
Now that I've gone on that tangential (but not irrelevant) rant: when the bitching is being applied to melodic death metal in particular, well then it might hold a fraction more weight, since that's a sound the region more or less pioneered or at least 'defined' after taking inspiration from records like Carcass' Heartwork, and a lot of the 'known' acts in the field are variations on a singular theme of fast-paced, eruptive and very often 'uplifting' material which is the stepchild of the tryst of death, thrash and trad/power metal. But it's not a lot different than brutal USDM, or German power metal, or whatever...I'm not holding grudges just because Darkane, Soilwork and Dark Tranquillity have some similarities; they've also got subtle differences that distinguish them one another, and an overall sound that was inspiring for the turn of the millennium and continues to be so, if in a smaller capacity than before because a lot of the 'mainstreamers' in the niche seem to be facing identity crises or just not writing good songs anymore. A record like Aren't You Dead Yet? does get lost in the herd because most of its ideas are those which have already been expressed by a number of these other artists, on records like Natural Born Chaos, Damage Done or Rusted Angel which were all exponentially 'fresher' and better visualized and composed.

Essentially, this disc is a ligament between the punchy, tightly-woven 21st century chug-thrash of the last four being meted out at an often high pace desperately clenched to its own ideas of momentum, to ensure that there might never be a dull moment, and then its all interspersed with clinical, brief tremolo picked phrasings or loads of melodic spikes that sing like candy to the ears of a listener who wants that contradiction...that contrast. Tunes like "Exploding Veins" play out like mid-paced nu school Exodus neck-wrenchers slathered in The Haunted style vocals, where others are parallels to fellow Swedes Terror 2000 who play more or less uppity racetrack/street thrash. The vocals here have a broader palate of growls and snarls than on the older works, so they seem more like a gang effort, but I don't always like them because the 'shouting' does feel like a typical generic, overbearing metalcore mob, if better inflected. Though all the instruments are quite clear, it's obvious that the guitars are the star of the show...the beats and bass-lines fail to function without some interesting note progression kicking into the listener's skull, and to be fair they do have some. It's not the best selection of quality riffing in their catalog, but this is certainly stronger than Firedemon or its own direct predecessor The More You Suffer, and I attribute that to the better leads as well.

But, again, Carnal Forge prove here that they've not really got a lot to offer that their local kin have not already delivered. If you've worn out your copies of The Haunted Made Me Do It, Slaughter of the Soul, or A Predator's Portrait, then this might make for a decent backup, but a sprinkling of quality solos and melodies, and a handful of tight and unpredictable rhythm patterns aren't enough to propel this one into the pantheon of the memory banks. Pacing and production are not at fault (it still sounds good a decade later if you're into this stuff), merely the fact that we've got a set of songs which are by all means well executed but still fail to stand the test of time. These guys are all excellent musicians and their professional, consistent resumes all point to that, but where and when it was released, Aren't You Dead Yet? did not make any sort of statement and might have been even further disregarded if not for the Century Media release. The bland digital photography zombie cover is uninteresting, the logo seems to have grown even worse with each new rendering of its font, the lyrics and titles just average, but I'd honestly place this in the 'top half' of their first six releases, trailing just slightly behind Please...die! in effectiveness and value.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10] (I finally found my place in eternity)

http://www.carnalforge.se/

Carnal Forge - The More You Suffer (2003)

Thanks to the grainy photography, I can't honestly say I have any clue what is happening on the cover of Carnal Forge's fourth full-length album. Someone in a chic suit is drowning or molesting someone else against an oddly shaped bathtub? That's my best guess, but yet again we've got 'artwork' and disposable logo that just don't scream of much effort in engaging the beholder/listener when there are so many more attractive options, even in the psycho/gore metal niche. Anyway, once you ponder over the lyrics it becomes a little more evident that the Swedes focus heavily on violent outbursts, serial killers, and other subjects that seem edgy enough to match the hi octane death/thrashing, as they had since the debut; but it all feels a little redundant and frankly generic in how they structure and package the message. Musically, I felt like the band had slowly made some strides over the course of the first three records, but with The More You Suffer, certain production choices and all-too-familiar songwriting grind that progress to a halt, and it even seems a step backward.

It might just be my ears, but after listening through the CD itself I listened to it digitally and on/YouTube to confirm that the mix here just lacks the punch of its predecessor Please...die! Which isn't to say it's a horrible sounding disc, just that it feels like the mids are slightly higher in frequency, and thus everything has perhaps too much of a balance in which I lose the bass earlier against the guitars. Structurally, there's not a broad gap between this and the older material, being largely hyperactive Haunted hustle-thrash which seems like it's racing for a subway train that it's just about to miss whenever the band picks up the pace. The songs are in general longer here, mostly falling between 3-4 minutes which is on average one minute beyond what they're used to, and this extra space doesn't necessarily go to waste. Each tune is enabled with additional versatility, like the moody, overcast cleaner guitars in the bridge of "H.B.F. Suicide", and there are far more melodies and harmonies here than even Please...die! In other words, The More You Suffer seems to be tiptoeing more directly into the Swedish melodeath territory, and while the acuity of the guitars proves they aren't at all bad at this, it becomes even more generic...many of the specific riffs sounds like they're just lifted from the creative stock of At the Gates, Soilwork and Darkane but lacking the character and atmosphere that those acts brought to the field on their career-defining works.

The drums are presumably played with the same effort as past albums, and yet I didn't quite feel that their mix was as powerful: the snare seems to pop a lot more while deeper tones blend a little too much into the guitars. Jonas Kjellgren doesn't sound any less angry than on the previous material, and yet I feel like he's reached the bottom of his bag of tricks here, and a lot of the phrasing in lines seems like a mere paraphrase from Firedemon or Please...die! A handful of the songs are engaging for a few spins, particularly those on the latter half of the album ("Into Oblivion", "My Bloody Rampage") which have some tremolo picking passages that help sustain the 'death/thrash' tag, but even there you'll find some pretty boring chord grooves or methodical Swede-o-thrashing 101 which closely mirrors the more mediocre selections of Terror 2000. In the end, while it's as clean as a new razor straight off the assembly line, the production here doesn't captivate me or pummel me in the stomach like the album before it. The songs, while fiery and energetic on the whole, just seem unassuming and bland beyond their pacing. Not awful, but if The More You Suffer never existed, no one would be at a loss...not Century Media, not Carnal Forge, and certainly not you or I.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10] (one more broken soul)

http://www.carnalforge.se/

Carnal Forge - Please...Die! (2001)

I wish I could tell you that the lamely titled Please...die! was the point at which Carnal Forge 'hit their stride', but in reality it was hitting the same stride that both its predecessors had already braved. However, based on strengths of riffs alone, this was easily the best of the Swedes' efforts to its day, and clearly something that would appeal to fans of similar efforts like Darkane's Rusted Angel, Soilwork's Chainheart Machine, At the Gates' Slaughter of the Soul or even The Haunted Made Me Do It. It retains the modernization and punch of Firedemon, but riffs and melodies are composed at a more memorable level that lends the record a greater replay value, without sacrificing the frenetic, 'hyperthrash' pacing and energy that was the chief selling point of their older material. The logo and cover art remained fairly uninspired and insipid, but the tunes work better because the notes fall into more interesting patterns here, and that always makes the difference.

Some of the better concise, blistering short-range pummel-thrash pieces of their career dwell here, like "Fuel for Fire" or "Slaves" which balance clinical muted picking patterns/harmonies with the unfettered vocal howls of Jonas Kellgren who really does sound like someone crossbred Speed Strid and Tomas Lindberg with a pair of German Shepherds and then let them off their leashes at the listener. He uses a lot of 'gang shouted' layers panning at you from multiple directions, and they work decidedly well with the clean, machine-like chugging engines of the rhythm guitars, which if they went much further during some of the more mid-paced sequences might veer off into a djent territory. They're polished, but somehow possessive of this depth and richness on a song like "Becoming Dust" that Please...die! almost seems like a marvel of production, that is of course if you don't hate the shinier finish of 21st century-style recordings on sheer principle. The bass guitar also really hits a good tone here; perhaps the lines themselves aren't always that distinct, but the sound is strong and fully complements the impact of the guitar, while Stefan Westerberg sounds about as consistent and hard hitting as he was on Firedemon. The melodies present are very much redolent of Darkane and At the Gates, but that would only be a bother if I didn't enjoy those bands at their primes (spoiler = I do!)

Ultimately, this is a case where I do feel the production is stronger than the songwriting, but that in of itself is an improvement over what they were able to come up with earlier. These aren't the sorts of riffs that will come to mind a decade or even a month after you first listen to the album, but at 36 minutes this is basically a welcome rush if you've got the energy and attention span to appreciate this sort of harried, premature thrash ejaculation which generally fills out about 2-3 minutes of excitement and never gives itself a chance to wear out its welcome. They took a few years to get there, and weren't helped by the fact that countrymen like Soilwork and Dark Tranquillity were putting out truly incredible melodic death records (Natural Born Chaos, Damage Done) that dwarf something like this in terms of ambition and effectiveness; in fact, this disc went by in a flash and nobody seemed to really notice or care, but I give credit where it's due. It's far from perfect, and not their best album (that comes later), but Carnal Forge definitely secured themselves in that 'second tier' of Swedish death/thrash or melodeath with Please...die!, as perhaps a band that one shouldn't just write off based solely on its lack of uniqueness. Serviceable, hard and fast, post-millennial thrashing.

Verdict: Win [7/10] (you just wanted a ride)

http://www.carnalforge.se/

Carnal Forge - Firedemon (2000)

Oh damn! Isn't this, like...the SAME fiery demon face that was on the cover of the first album? Here he seems a little more...refined, though the image is equally as ugly and hopefully whoever did the art direction for this and any other Carnal Forge record had a pretty short stint in the medium, or at least improved dramatically elsewhere. Ultimately, though, it's the label and band that should know better, and these are the same sorts of hacked computer edited cheese graphics that plagued a lot of records when people were dicking around with things like the 3D, chromed logos and so forth. Those were like the neon lights over dingy bars in the 90s. Just think how much better it would have looked with just an honest two dimensional scrawl of the same logo!?

Otherwise, Firedemon is really more of the same on the debut, pulverizing hyper thrash sauteed in the more intense riffing patterns favored by other bands who were modernizing the field with a death metallic edge. I felt this was a tighter record than the debut, and the songs a margin more effective, and minimally catchier, but the vocal style and rhythm guitar progressions were in some cases were interchangeable with those, or even quite a few of the Terror 2000/(early) Soilwork songs. Palm-muted, muscular renditions of popular West Coast US thrash in the late 80s/early 90s, in fact a number of these tunes would have fit in quite seamlessly on an Exodus album fronted by Zetro or Rob Dukes, or a new Vio-lence album. Or almost anything with Marco Aro singing, but I'll put that grief away for another day. Bottom line: competent and violent riffing, which is at the very least consistent through the dozen cuts, and occasionally capable of a dissonant or melodic surprise, but largely moving along at the same breakneck clip like a drag race through Stockholm, with testosterone as fuel, and the grand prize being an autographed, limited edition Slaughter of the Soul poster. Sadly, this doesn't have the memorable compositions of that disc, or Rusted Angel, or Steelbath Suicide, or really most of the group's comparable countrymen...

It's not terrible, and I thought the bass level on the album was dialed up a little to kick you in the gut all the harder. Group vocal/gang shouts seem a little more prevalent, and the guitars meatier and easier to make out, not to mention more athletic (again, a lot of patterns quite akin to what Soilwork started out in). It's 'wild child' thrash metal that sounds like it was often performed while drunk, thus the broken glass in the tune "Uncontrollable" is pretty accurate to the aesthetics throughout. It features a pretty damn solid performance by drummer Stefan Westerberg, especially with his toms and kicks being so loud and proud. The pure chugging sequences which are still often indulged in are also better conceived and more energetic than the debut, the handful of death metal tremolo passages more pronounced, and really it exceeds Who's Gonna Burn in every conceivable department, the exception being a few lame, thrown-together lyrics; only it's still just not a 'good' album beyond a pure pummeling parameter or the production values alone. Short and to the point, perhaps, but when it's a point that has already been made a number of times at the same meeting, it loses some of its weight.

Verdict: Indifference [6.25/10] (let me out, let me burn)

http://www.carnalforge.se/

Carnal Forge - Who's Gonna Burn (1998)

Carnal Forge was at one point a fairly interesting footnote amidst a batch of Swedish bands who provided a more visceral and aggressive postmortem to the success of countrymen At the Gates in the late 90s, after they'd pretty much run their course and then-newly converted fans worldwide realized nothing more was going to happen. There were a lot of more direct, melodic death imitators to happen along, and then some other acts which seemed to ramp up the speed and energy. At any rate, Who's Gonna Burn could be seen as 'riding the coattails' of a record like Slaughter of the Soul, but in fact it had a lot more in common with stuff like Darkane (if not as atmospheric and industrial), The Haunted (who were slightly more accessible), or the Speed (Soilwork) side project Terror 2000, or even a more intense Slapdash (who would ironically provide the new vocalist for this band down the road). Most of the members of Carnal Forge had cycled through a number of other bands in the scene, and many have since gone on to be slightly more successful in later projects, but for a while there was some hope that these guys could break through due to a pretty high visibility on labels like Century Media.

Who's Gonna Burn was their sole offering through Relapse, and if nothing else, it's a certified pissed-off take on modernized 90s thrash which borrows only a bit of the 'Swedish' thing, and is more directly inspired by material like Slayer's Divine Intervention (and beyond). Raunchier-than-normal vocals sound like a more youthful and disgruntled Tom Araya sans the screams he used to spit on the old 80s shit, with a nearly distorted sounding howled sustain. Propulsive rhythm guitar riffing reminiscent of anything from Razor to the first two Haunted records if they were slightly accelerated, and there's also a sense of tough guy attitude among some of the more obvious chord progression choices that could be traced to anything from groove metal (ala Pissing Razors) to commercialized NYHC (Biohazard). I could have sworn I even heard a little Brutal Truth influence to some riffing patterns but I could never prove it in court, and hell, a few tunes like "Sweet Bride" sound like Judas Priest "Painkiller" power metal sped up and made dirtier thanks to Jonas Kellgren's barking vocals. But, even if a lot of the roots of this material wasn't exactly unique for its day, there's definitely something modernized about the approach that felt like they were taking thrash into a more vicious terrain than it had normally tread in.

Who's Gonna Burn is punchy and concise, with few of the tunes clocking far beyond the 3 minute mark, but a fair share of riffs involved even when they're meting out some blistering brief like "Born to Hate" in under two minutes with the chugging breakdown. The album involves probably a half dozen or so palm muted riffs that are utter garbage, but the rest at least attempt to sound inspired and uppity like they were being performed by some Stockholm street thugs that just made off with a few stolen loaves of bread tucked under each arm. The problem here is the same as it is with so many other thrash bands beyond the 80s...the lack of strong songwriting with regards to choruses and individual 'money shot' riffs. No matter how intense Carnal Forge plays, and they do...like 16 year-olds racing towards ejaculation in every tune, they simply do not have the capacity for sticking that load in the listener's memory. It's all speed and slaughter with little to no substance, and you're always waiting for that one amazing riff to justify all the average ones and it just never comes along. They do offer a little variation here or there what with the breakdowns, leads, occasional melodies and the harshness of their high-speed violence, but when it comes to really having tracks that resonate through the decades, like on Darkane's Rusted Angel which appealed to a lot of the same crowd, Carnal Forge just falls flat, and it's too bad, because this debut clearly had some effort going into it.

Anyway, it sounds absolutely nothing like Carcass, apart from the band name and the fact that it's got some thrashy/death hybrid riffs strewn about like on Heartwork. Also, the band's cover artwork sucks, it always would suck on every album, and they never seemed able to pin down a logo to save themselves. All of those are superficial complaints, but they did contribute to the feeling that this band was 'D.O.A.', another middle run act caught up in a flurry of national signings when Sweden could 'do no wrong'. Nothing about this is unprofessional or incompetent, and in truth the band is viciously throwing punches whenever they can, so there's nothing 'boring' or wimpy happening; but it's just so uninteresting...even Terror 2000 could mete out far better, explosive riffs that what you'll find here. That said, if you wanna track down some passable 90s thrash before the style was officially 'cool again' (10 years later), Carnal Forge were on the scene.

Verdict: Indifference [5.75/10] (got a grip on the wire)

http://www.carnalforge.se/