For those of us old enough to remember the awesome death metal scene that began in the mid-1980s and especially the unique Scandinavian scene that saw the pioneering acts of Entombed, Grave, Dismember, Unleashed, Carnage, Nihilist (yes I know they became Entombed), Centinex, I could go on and on then you’ll recall how utterly brutal and exciting it was at the time. At one point there was a statistic flying around that Sweden was churning out more death metal bands per capita than any other country on the planet and it could easily be believed if you have ever given the book Swedish Death Metal by Daniel Ekeroth a read, which you should if you haven’t, as it is the go to guide to everything that happened back in the Swedeath (as it is colloquially called these days) scene back then.
In 2021 Carnal Savagery has its roots firmly planted in Sweden’s halcyon death metal scene of the 1990s with Mikael Lindgren (drums, bass) and former member Henrik Jansson both coming from Cromlech that released two demos back in the 90s. Added to that guitarist Patrik Eriksson and vocalist Mattias Lilja are ex-members of Divine Soul with the latter currently in also Desolation, leaving guitarist Mattias Björklund who has been a member of numerous other projects such as Exanthema, Tears Of Grief and is currently also in black metal act Snakemass if my research is correct. The pedigree within this band is unquestionable and indeed one could even say that it is genetically embedded into these four artists and you can tell that the moment this sophomore album starts up. Added to this already stacked up pedigree the band enlisted the legendary Dan Swanö to master the album.
This second album arrives almost exactly one year after the excellent debut ‘Grotesque Macabre’ establishing the gritty foundations with songs that teemed with festering violence but brimmed with catchiness as the feculence continues on this latest offering. Opening without any intro, ‘Shredded Flesh’ does exactly that, ripping into the listener with a stampeding abrasiveness we’ve all come to adore from the Swedish death metal scene. Granted I’d say the buzzsaw guitar sound has been oiled and greased somewhat but it still possesses enough razoring action to cut through bone and sinew with ease. What this album abounds with, like the debut, is captivating melodies, situated alongside the noxious aggressiveness that is intertwined into every track as shown by the excellent ‘Reborn Dead’ which slashes out with no mercy. Its voracious riffing is coupled to groove infested hooks that claw with acidic grit that only Swedeath can capture.
‘Embalmed Corpses’ is excellent, starting with a slower more grisly horror strewn approach the song unleashes that macabre ghoulishness that cloys at you, infests you before switching the pace slightly. The expected speed surge is quickly upon you but then subsides allowing that blanket of sludgy squelching filth to suffocate the listener. It is these slower more penetrating tracks I preferred overall as ‘In Death I Thrive’ continues this thematic slithering crawl offering double kick floods amidst a fine bass riff break where vocal screams pierce like your typical horror flick.
‘Dead Rotten Meat’ was the second single from the album, after ‘Reborn Dead’, so fans of the band will have already heard this groove diseased beast with its guttural grime as the album returns to a cavernous drawl on ‘Exhumed’ right after battering you to a pulp on ‘Maggot Infested Flesh’. Like I said it is the slower more expansive tunes that I think the band really excels at, the way they disembowel you with permeating asphyxiation is tangible but link it to melodic infusions and slight deviations in tempo. The fade-in to ‘Veil Of Death’ has a doom death persona, oozing a sense of dread as an ultra-dense double bass section plunges the song into a smothering crevasse.
Depending on which version you buy of this album, and luckily I’ve got all the tracks available to me, there are bonus tunes. The CD version gets the bonus of ‘Grotesque Macabre’ which is an exceptional song, again possessing that clinging sticky sludginess with overriding doom death at first relenting for the upsurge in speed that rockets the song along, but it’s the sideswiping tempo changes that really make this track so cool. The digital version will have ‘Vermin’ as the bonus tune, this is all according to the promo information I have though I’ve seen conflicting information about which tracks are appearing on which version so I’m using the label info as correct. Again it is a worthy addition but personally I can’t understand why both tracks aren’t included on both versions anyway. Added to the end of the album are two other tunes called ‘Morgue Of The Mutilated’ and ‘Cannibal Terror’ the former of which is listed as the digital bonus track on one site I read and the latter isn’t listed anywhere, including on the label promotional information. My death metal cover tune detector wasn’t firing so I’m assuming it’s an original track of their own but I stand corrected if not as both these tracks are excellent especially the latter with its powering rabid speed and catchy riffing.
Old school death metal thuggery runs amok on Carnal Savagery’s second album, unmitigated pervading fetid rancour, saturated in melody and entrenched in guttural groove.
(8.5/10 Martin Harris)
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