Tuesday, June 2, 2009

So Sick It Hurts: Carnifex - "The Diseased and the Poisoned"

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It's been quite some time since we decided an album was gnarly enough to warrant a coveted SSIH spot, but I think this release truly deserves it. This album is seriously brutal.

When this album first starts playing, I'm assuming most will think it sounds like every other deathcore disc out there right now. I understand this feeling. That's what I thought, too. But then something starts to click, and the record begins to take off a bit. Things get a bit faster and the guitars start to shred like taco cheese. The growls intensify and the percussion sounds dead on. This is when the listener will probably start to get the idea that this album might be worth the time. It's pretty good. Solid. On par. Then comes the first breakdown.

Seriously, these breakdowns are fucking insane. At the first destructive chug, I was hooked. Carnifex essentially took the essence of real death metal and paired it up with beatdown/moshcore. So when that pit starts, I'm not talking some Norma Jean circle in the suburbs; I'm talking straight-up, terrorizing mayhem. This is the soundtrack to bloody faces and broken limbs.

Like I said, everything else is solid, as well. The band is technical enough to keep you interested and even has dueling screams/growls to mix everything up. When I first heard this, it sounded like a mix between All Shall Perish, The Acacia Strain, and old On Broken Wings with an extra pinch of death metal.

This record has been on constant repeat since I got it. Check it out, but make sure you are ready to rage beforehand.

Check out a live vid of the song "In Coalesce with Filth and Faith":