HM-2 pedal worshiping Swedeath purveyors Carnal Savagery have a strange way of doing business. In 2022 they released not one, but TWO full-length albums. The product was the same both times: Dismember and Entombed worship with enough buzz and fuzz on the guitars to disrupt air traffic over Scandinavia. I covered Worm Eaten and found it to be “meat n’ scab taters death” and enjoyable if not essential. They were pretty quiet in 2023, but in January of this year, they dropped Into the Abysmal Void, which our man Felagund considered a standard issue “Meat and potatoes”1 death platter with enough good bits to hit the spot. Now, 10 months later they drop a second album. Graveworms, Cadavers, Coffins and Bones may sound like the companion album to Autopsy’s Ashes, Organs, Blood and Crypts, but it’s another dose of Dismembercore with only occasional nods to American stenches. Can the band keep producing fresh sounds with such an ambitious release schedule and a style that was already dated at the turn of the century? Let’s examine their burial plan.
You know exactly what you’re getting with these guys, so when opener “Nailed to the Cross” mimics the sound of Dismember’s magical debut, it won’t come as an everflowing stream of surprise. It’s quite good and those H(e) M(an)-2 riffs are potent and packed with raw power. It’s thrashing, brutish, and reeks of 1991 so I’m hard-wired to enjoy it. If the rest of Graveworms were this stout, I would put myself on a strict Diet of Worms. Unfortunately, the album swings from tasty gravecakes to bland and timid entries, suitable, perhaps, for patients recovering from a Taylor Swift deprogramming. First the good. “Gallery of Flesh” is a slashing, flaying warbeast full of sharp riffs and bulldozing momentum. It got moved to Steel‘s Leg Day Playlist after half a spin and there it will live in eternal infamy. The title track is also highly enjoyable, ripping away with whirring riffs and thunderous drumming only to segway into hideously massive death doom that smells like Autopsy looks. At one point vocalist Mattias Lilja bellows something that sounds like “PAPA JOHNS” and it makes me want to order crappy, salty pizza every time I hear it. “Burnt to Death” also stands out with a mighty d-beat and some shockingly nimble and slick solo work.
On the flip side of the casket garden, several tracks feel stock standard or suffer from issues that derail otherwise decent tuneage. “Carnal Blasphemy” has a jaunty swagger that feels out of place with the rest of the album and the song never really clicks into high gear. “Bind, Torture, Kill” is the most rudimentary caveman shit imaginable and it never leaves mom’s basement despite melodic soloing that stands out like a turd in a Cannibal Corpse. The low point comes with “Autopsied Alive” which is just painfully listless and dull as fook. Things wind out with back-to-back lackluster nuggets, making the bulk of Graveworms underwhelming. The 35-minute runtime helps the entire concoction go down relatively easy though, aided by song lengths that generally run 2-3 minutes. The production is fine for the style with a mastering job by Dan “the Fucking MAN” Swanö that accentuates that harsh, raw guitar tone to the nth degree.
Mikael Lindgren handles guitars, bass and drums here and his riffing is the most appealing aspect of the Carnal Savagery experience. He has the classic Dismember sound and style down cold, but he also borrows from the likes of Bolt Thrower and every so often, Cannibal Corpse and Autopsy. He really breaks out of the mold when it comes to soloing, at times reminding of prime James Murphy. He even goes neo-classical here and there, creating an interesting counterpoint to the Neaderthal thuggery the album marinates in. His bass work is also tasty and often quite present. Mattias Lilja is a solid death croaker with a sound somewhere between L.G. Petrov and Marduk’s Mortuus. He fits the material just fine. It’s the inconsistent writing that submarines things, with less than half of the songs delivering a nasty wallop.
I’m not in the business of giving free advice, but it might be in Carnal Savagery’s best interest to release one album a year. If you take the best moments from Graveworm and add them to the top bits on Into the Abysmal Void, you’d be cooking with cadaver gas. Sometimes less is Moar when it helps the less BE MOAR. You can count on a few ace moments, but this trip to the chopping mall gets boring.
Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Moribund
Websites: carnalsavagery.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/carnalsavagery | instagram.com/carnalsavagery
Releases Worldwide: November 22nd, 2024
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