CARNATION
CARNATION "Cursed Mortality"
By Dr. Abner Mality
These Belgian Swe-death worshippers have been chugging along for about 10 years now, making steady progress after a rather unspectacular beginning. With "Cursed Mortality", they do take another step forward, but do they equal the giants of the past such as ENTOMBED and DISMEMBER? Not quite yet, I say.
This platter definitely has plenty of meat and potatoes chainsaw crunch for the unfussy listener. Tunes like "Dutroux" and "Cycles of Suffering" blast along in classic DISMEMBER style. But for the first time, melody has substantially crept into the merciless crush. I detect a very large influence from EDGE OF SANITY here, especially in the alternating clean/guttural vocals of Simon Duson, who is a dead ringer for Dan Swano on "Replicant" and the title track. Indeed, that title track is as close as any band has come to EDGE OF SANITY''s unique brand of melodic death metal.. It's an intriguing blend of sad melody and massive mayhem in best E.O.S. tradition.
Other tracks like "Maruta" and "Metropolis" throw some curves into the band's sound without yielding an inch when it comes to Stockholm death metal. The album races by and is a nice compact 37 minutes or so. Is it as good as DISMEMBER or EDGE OF SANITY? Not quite, and I have a feeling CARNATION won't ever quite reach those heights. But that's a pretty steep mountain to climb.
The band does make its way forward. I just wish they'd do something about their name. If they have to name themselves after a flower, it should be something like SNAPDRAGON or HIBISCUS...those both sound more metal than CARNATION.