Album Review: Carnophage - Matter of a Darker Nature
Reviewed by Daniel Phipps
Coming from Ankara in Turkey, Carnophage have been a part of the Turkish Death Metal scene since 2006. Having previously been signed to Unique Leader records Matter of a Dark Nature which is the band's 3rd record, sees them join the ranks of Transcending Obscurity records.
Matter of a Dark Nature is anything but a subtle record, and as soon as its absolutely savage opening track closes and you are met with a follow up of equal severity you get a sense that your ears are going to take a battering. There was once a time that technical death metal to be frank didn't piss about, when acts like Deeds of Flesh, Disavowed and Spawn of Possession were at the forefront of the movement and churning out classic slabs of technical brutal precision one after another, whilst actually writing killer and catchy rigfs. Having formed at the back end of that period of death metal history Carnophage definitely takes cues from these types of bands and the material that they bring forward is definitely cut from that same cloth.
This record attacks, the guitar work is extremely aggressive even when Matter of a Dark Nature has a more intricate section of guitar playing Carnophage still attacks the listener and this is what I find a lot of newer technical death metal acts don't quite accomplish. The vocals are well executed, the pronunciation of the lyrics is quite clear for the most part whilst maintaining the low sound of classic brutal death metal. The drums hit all the right buttons in terms of execution however personally I would have liked the kicks to be a bit more dominant within the final mix. They are there and audible but I would have liked them a bit louder. The drum work does add some really nice flow and groove to the album so you do get some slight breaks from having your face ripped off with riffs.
Carnophage fill this new album with eight songs that absolutely fly by, they are well crafted and absolutely rock solid. You still get albums of this nature within brutal death metal but they don't seem to be as common as they once were and it's always a nice find when you get them.
