Carnifex - Graveside Confessions (2021)

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Carnifex - Graveside Confessions (2021)

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Carnifex is well known for its tasty blend of groove, melody, and oodles of extremity in its music. Speed has been characteristic of their music without pushing too hard on the idea of speed for the sake of it. The band’s newest offering ‘Graveside Confessions’ hits hard and keeps hitting. A well-paced record showcasing what the band is loved for – heavy music, gnarly riffs and breakdowns, crushing drums and bass, and one hell of a vocal performance very unique to the band. For starters, this is really long record coming in at 15 songs with three “Graveside Edition” songs showcasing how beautifully the band’s music has aged.

Starting out with “Graveside Confessions”, the album almost instantly sets out to showcase the maturity in the band’s sound and approach to music. Not like Carnifex ever really sounded awful. With this album, we really are at a point of putting into perspective how something good only gets better and better without major compromise. The neat use of ambient sections in the music across the record adds an environment of suspense. Couple this with the use of synth/string-esque sections across the album and all the extremes of the band’s music spreads themselves out very well. “Pray For Peace”, “Carry Us Away”, “Cursed” make trickle in a haunting demeanor to the record. This is very tastefully done. “Talk To The Dead”, “Countess of Perpetual Torment” brims with slick groove, neat drumming passages with tight blasts, and jumpy breakdowns.

“Cold Dead Summer” will for sure become a moshing classic in time to come. The low chuggy action in the initial sections of the song adds on beautifully before more aggressive parts of the music come crashing in. One of my favorite accompaniments with blast beats are crushing guitars and bass( DUH! Of course!) but also a string section coming right in. Even if it is for a little while. This is the magic sauce. Love seeing this in different parts of the music. To me personally “Cold Dead Summer” really knocks the album out of the park! Another favorite would be “Alive For The Last Time”. The whole song is quintessentially the sound of the band from its initial days to its contemporary days. The album finishes with three special “Graveside Edition” songs – “Collaborating Like Killers”, “My Heart In Atrophy”, and “Slit Wrist Savior”. Of course, who wouldn’t know these Carnifex classics from ‘Dead In My Arms?’ These songs will make all of us yearn for the band to re-record some of their biggest classics. These three songs have aged like fine wine. A fresh production of these songs only goes out to show how strong older songs by the band have kept up without breaking a sweat.

‘Graveside Confessions” by Carnifex is a well-rounded album that captures a stellar performance by a band that refuses to cut corners. The instrumental side of things absolutely blows me away. By itself, within the genre and as far as the idea of being heavy goes, this album is a treat. I love the production of the vocal performances. The vocal performances are textural. These are not screams where they feel get mixed into and lost with the instruments. This is beautifully distinct and tasteful. The bass is loud and heavy – an absolutely crushing low end. The guitars are tight, fast, and sound massive. The drums are excellent with smashing performances, powerful rhythm, and of course with the much-loved blasts!

The songwriting was getting really predictable on the record. While one might say that this may be because of the genre, but no matter how conventionally restrictive a genre maybe there is always oodles of scope to move around. Perhaps this is even loved for there is creativity in repetition. While a lot of metal bands today have a very unmistakable modern metal sound to their production and mix today, this album sounded much louder than most other albums would. Almost like, there would be a new loudness war now within the metal community. It does sound like irrespective of the massive loudness, the dynamics of the band’s performances are still felt. Personally, I was a bit unsure about cranking up the volume to hear more of the nuances of the band’s stellar performance because, by itself, this is really loud! Maybe I will pick up on more nuances in time to come! But, the music is a joy!

by Roshan Machayya, metalwani.com