Carnival of Souls

These lads appeared in the late-80’s intent on making an impact on the more extreme side of the metal spectre, by blending thrash and death metal in a fairly intense manner, their blend peaking quite early on the “And Then You Die” demo where genuine technical elements made the delivery quite appetizing. Things even went up the proficiency scale on the following demo the band establishing themselves as the underground analogue to Pestilence, Invocator, and Assorted Heap.

The band reached the official release stage eventually with the album reviewed here which saw them moving towards the purer death metal roster with bold strides by also increasing the unquestionable technical presence. An interesting symbiosis has been achieved between heavy stompers (“Loss of Identity”) and fast-paced blitzkriegers (“Disappearing Silence”) both sides full of pleasant surprises including the addictive melodic hooks on the excellent “Testimony of the Ancients” reminder “Escape the Eternal Sleep”, and the psychedelic Voivod-ish minimalisms on the creepy masterpiece “Dignity of Entrails”. The more immediate, respectively shorter, material has been placed at the beginning the guys creating the impression that their prime intention is to pummel the listener into oblivion initially although there are plenty of stylish, intricate walkabouts during this first half alongside the brutal hyper-active explosions. Later on one will come across delightful takes on the progressive death metal idea like the shape-shifting shredder “Necromantic Love-Affair” and the more officiant, nearly epic-sounding “Ashes from the Past”, not to mention the great nod to Death’s “Human” “The Visiting Room”, a jumpy nervy technicaller with combustible speedy surges which also carve the highly-stylized complex veneer of the encompassing roller-coaster “Art of Butchery”.

The good old thrash has been side-lined for most of the time, given a few chances to shine on the galloping bouncers “Immortality as Defence” and “Final Discorporation” which are still pretty intense deathly affairs, only sparsely thrash-peppered. The guys assuredly ride the crest of the death metal wave, confident in their skills without strictly choosing a side… they could have moved towards the already shaping dazzling brutality movement or could have mutated into a less decipherable super-technical oddity, think their compatriots and contemporaries Chemical Breath, cause there were definitely hints at such a possibility. Neither of these options materialized, for better or worse, as the band chose a less exuberant, also less aggressive, path to follow on the sophomore that sounded quite close to Death’s “Spiritual Healing” for at least half the time, with both more intriguing and more standard motifs added throughout. And that was it…

for a long stretch of time when two compilations were shot in quick succession a few years back announcing the guys’ second spell with the music industry. Nothing new on their front for the time being, but whatever exoticisms the guys vote to cook in the future, I’m sure they will easily find their audience especially the one fonder of the near-death experiences.