Cephalic Carnage’s ‘Anomalies’ CD blasts away in my face as I write this, damn this is good stuff! Currently I’m crushed under the weight of track 8, ‘Inside Is Out’. Like many of the tracks on this one, it starts out in one direction and completely changes gears with devastating results. Mellow, melodic guitar starts things off, followed by chaotic hyper speed riffage, then we have some death-laden hooks that are infectious immediately and ultra-heavy. …and that’s just the beginning of this ride.

Ever since their debut on Relapse in ‘98 - ‘Exploiting Dysfunction’, followed by ‘Lucid Interval’ in ‘02, Cephalic Carnage has caught my ear and delivered some top notch metal in many regards with their blend of Death/Doom/Stoner qualities. Choosing to keep with the off the wall lyrical approach also compliments the roller-coaster ride that accompanies each one of their songs. This time around the production is godly, nothing too polished. Drums and guitars are balanced well and are thick as a brick wall. The band seems to be able to deliver on all fronts, not relying only on blinding blast beats or crushing hooks. CC attains a good vibe throughout the disc, and though every song is slightly different in its approach they all seem to gel nicely. Top notch musicianship keeps things tightly in check, where lesser talented bands attempting to blend these styles would sound disjointed and out of place. The vocals are delivered alongside the changes in the music with a great variety of their own, and done extremely well.

Standouts are the opening ‘Scientific Remote Viewing’ and ‘Wraith’, which pummel and tenderize your ear canals for the trip ahead. ‘Dying Will Be the Death of Me’ is a delicious metalcore parody-song complete with the ‘poor me’ lyrics, clean vocals and bad guitar solo. Brilliant. Worth the price of the CD alone is my favorite track, ‘KILL FOR WEED’. Any band that writes a song like that gets my vote for album of the year. The last song ‘Ontogony of Behavior’ ends things on par for these guys - bizarre but very entertaining.

Overall, many influences ranging from Brutal Truth to Bongzilla can be heard here. ‘ANOMALIES’ is a must for open-minded fans of Death/Doom/Stoner metal and, I happen to think, one of the best releases of 2005 so far.

This entry was posted by The Coroner on Friday, 22nd April, 2005 at 22:07 and is filed under Reviews, Cephalic Carnage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response below. You may view a   printable version of this page. You may download this page in   PDF format.