CARNAL
"Lecherous Acts of Hedonism"
New Standard Elite
Brutal Death Metal
2019
Tracklisting:
1. Embedded with Spores
2. Silhouettes of My Concubine
3. Corrupted for Copulation
4. Ruined
5. The Greed of Her Contaminated Phermones
6. Uncontrollable Circumstances of Masochism
7. Disturbing Catalystic Re-Creation
8. Traumatic Sexual Servitude
9. An Overgrowth of Habitual Mutilations
*Hidden Bonus Track* Womb Full of Scabs (Disgorge cover)
Carnal is straight up punishing brutality from Auckland, New Zealand and formed in 2006 under the moniker Carnal Dominion. Carnal Dominion would shorten the name up to just Carnal the following year and were comprised of vocalist Ben Hickling, guitarist and backing vocalist Jesse Critchley, bassist Daniel Fyfe and drummer Leon Milnes. Carnal would release their debut EP "Morbid Desires" in November, 2012 with this lineup. At sometime in 2011, Ben would be replaced on vocals by current vocalist Dan Birrell and in 2016 would record their "Habitual Mutilations" two song promo and was picked up by New Standard Elite which released it in May of the following year. Leapfrog a couple of years later to 2019, still under the New Standard Elite banner, Carnal released this monster of an album entitled "Lecherous Acts of Hedonism" and marks the band's first official full length release.
Birrell's vocals are bowel deep gutturals with vocal patterns that fit very well with the thunderous music going on around him. Critchley's backing vocals are crisp, maniacal highs (once in a while there's some gutturals thrown in) that are also structured well and do a great job as a counter to Birrell's super gutturals to add a different dynamic. There are also the occasional "Predator" style vocals present starting in track two "Silhouettes of My Concubine" that aren't overdone throught the album but moreso to add a new dimension to the vocal category. Unfortunately I can't properly give credit to which person is doing them because it's blended well enough to hide. My guess, it would be Birrell but I'm not putting money on it because as my luck would have it both might be doing it so I'll just leave it with one comment...sick shit! The music on "Lecherous Acts of Hedonism" is a great mixture of controlled mayhem with blasting insanity and trem-picking chaos to slammy midpaced bludgeoning and chugging riffs along with some midpaced down-picked palm muting and pinch harmonic accents. Milnes sets the pace perfectly with both his stick and footwork behind ths kit. A heavy hitter up top with heavy feet to match on the pedals and the ability to make precisiive strikes. Carnal are not, however, a band to stick to just those philosphies and won't shy away from the odd or strange. While not odd or strange but moreso different when it comes to this album, the first hint of this is on track three "Corrupted for Copulation" where as the insanity fuels the tempo all of a sudden drops like a rock shortly after the 2 minute mark with some slow paced chugs into a long stretched out chord note before kicking you in the teeth a minute later by incorporating the slow chugs with midpaced chugs and pinch harmonics and leaving the long drawn out note for the last note of the song. The next somewhat oddity is the beginning of track five "The Greed of Her Contaminated Phermones" which is a whirlwind of hammer-on pull-offs by Critchley and Fyfe in midpaced fashion with Milnes doing some killer drumwork in the background then they turn those hammer-on pull-offs up by 100 with ferocious intent along with blasting drumwork before switching back to a more "normal" method. But of course the beginning wasn't enough because they relived those same aspects about halfway through the song. Track six "Uncontrollable Circumstances of Masochism" starts off in eerie fashion with slow paced single string notes with almost a doomy feel complete with a note bend. Of course this doesn't last long before they kick you in the groin again with controlled chaos but it's a great change for a lead-in. Track nine "An Overgrowth of Habitual Mutilations" was first recorded and released as part of Carnal's two song 2017 promo outing "Habitual Mutilations" and was, I presume, re-recorded for the full length release. This song starts of in a slow, methodical way that feels very dark and ominous. What a great lead-in to then gut punch you with fierce blasting and chaotic hammer-on pull-offs only to end with what started the song....or did it end? No it did not because after the song ends you hear little strange noised coming from your speakers for about 13 seconds or so into nothing until the 4 tap snare hit that leads into their hidden cover of Disgorge's "Womb Full of Scabs" from their "She Lay Gutted" album to finish this album off. Evident throughout the entire album, Carnal aren't just a brutal death metal band musicwise. Critchley, Fyfe and Milnes have tremendous technical ability also witch they incorporate that into the brutality and don't overuse it and Birrell's vocal patterns fit perfectly with what they're doing. It's just an awesome mixture of all of those elements.
"Letcherous Acts of Hedonism" was recorded by Troy Kelly, mixed by Troy Kelly and Jesse Critchley and mastered by Troy Kelly all at the Armoury Studios in Wellington, New Zealand. Artwork was done by Pedro Sena - Lordigan. Overall, in my opinion, a great debut full length from these New Zealand beasts and I'm personally really looking forward to hearing what they come up with next. So do yourself a favor and go check out their facebook page and their bandcamp page to check them out and if you like what you hear you can get music and merch from their bigcartel site or if you're in the U.S. you can pick some things (at least a cd) from the New Standard Elite site to save on shipping cost and time. If you're like me, I got the cd from NSE but they didn't have any of the correct size shirts left so I got those straight from the band along with their debut EP "Morbid Desires" from their bandcamp page.
New Standard Elite Facebook Page
New Standard Elite Bandcamp Page
New Standard Elite Bigcartel Store Site