Belgian band Carnation are responsible for meaty death metal. Not bad for a band who shares its name with a brand of evaporated milk. In their five years of existence they’ve managed to get to Asia and this year toured alongside Pestilence in Brazil. Live slaughter seems to be their preferred way, as “Chapel of Abhorrence” is surprisingly their first full album release.

As might be expected, Carnation’s death metal output is akin to stripping paint off walls. But as we got going with “The Whisperer”, there’s plenty of fire and thunder to stir the blood. I loved the doomy hall-of-horrors towards the end but this is about power and pungency. The pace but not the mercy picks up on “Hellfire”. Technically the waves are shadowy and suggestive, which makes this an inventive enactment of aggression and brutality. Thunder runs through the veins of the title track, which drives forward and stops, before taking us in another deathly direction. Playing with us like this is perhaps inappropriate in this uncompromising and harsh soundscape, but it’s a welcome distraction.

This album is really a throwback to the 1990s and any of the big death metal bands of that era. This said, it’s technically tight, interesting and of course ferocious with a deep undercurrent, so all those boxes are ticked. Now and again, there’s a rush of blood. We surge forward briefly on “Hatred Unleashed” and then again on “Plaguebreeder”, but whilst this is death metal in motion, it’s grim stuff. It’s all as if there’s nowhere else for death metal to go. With Dan Swanö in charge of the mastering, I’d have expected more than brief volleys of excitement like we get on “Sermon of the Dead” and the swampy section on “Fathomless Depths” to go with the rest of the grisly fare.

Maybe death metal isn’t in my soul, although I’ve heard enough over the years to know whether I like it and what I like. “Chapel of Abhorrence” is fine, and whilst I appreciate its intensity and accomplishment and wasn’t exactly hard going, it didn’t set me on fire.

(6.5/10 Andrew Doherty)

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