Carnal Decay - Carnal Pleasures

Rating: 7.8

Country: Switzerland

Release Date: 2006

Track list:
1. Molesting the Dead
2. Coward
3. Misanthropic Deeds
4. Where Is the Fucking Hospital?
5. You Can't Kill the Dead One
6. Lust for Gore
7. My Torture
8. Sliced Open
9. Putrid Fucked Up Dip Potato
10. Ignorance (Bonus Track)

Band Website: Carnal Decay

Carnal Decay - Carnal Pleasures

Michael Kern - bass, vocals
Isa Iten - guitar
Reto "Reti" Ehrler - drums

This was a nice surprise. I thoroughly enjoyed watchin' this Brutal Swiss Death Metal band at Obscene Extreme last year, while doin' crap dancin' and rubbish slammin' at the front with Edd (Gravaged, Spewage, Enhammerment, Death/Grind radio show on XpressionFM.com on Sundays from 10pm ) and four or five other fans durin' their afternoon set, so I've already got a soggy valve for it. Carnal Pleasures, their third release, was issued in 2006, but finally ended up on my doormat last week in amongst the heaps of tattered takeaway menus and flyers advertising trendy, posey events in my area, all piled up in the communal entrance corridor at my flat, so here's my thoughts on this nice Swiss trio.

Broad, tight, poundin' and catchy Brutal Death Metal, with piles of enormous slams, cranium-powderin' blast and menacin' gutturals, embellished with a good sense of humour that adds tongue in cheek bounciness to the more upliftin' pit-riffery and catchy vox. The tunes are often fairly straightforward, with cyclical phrases of big, hulkin' chugment bookended by rapid, blast cascade, mangled scalework and squallin' pinch, sprinkled with a few fleetin' bits of bass-solo twangle. The often simplistic riffage tattooed by snappy percussion and rollin' rhythmic rumble, with a whole host of catchy retch-patterns slobberily coiled around them, complimented with a few trickier little fiddly-licks, a few slower, more measured passages of barren guitarscape, and a couple of unexpected song directions. Although most of the time you can predict where the songs are goin' to take you, especially durin' the chugulated bits, cos you know that fast snare-clang is just around the corner, but there's often sections thrown in without necessarily any kind of build-up or warnin', so keep your ear out for sneaky slams and sudden bursts of speed poppin' up from nowhere. Inescapably, there is a smatterin' of mindless slam-bang chug thuggery to be found on this, recallin' many of the recently bashed Brootal bands on DC, but it's used in moderation, so whenever the silly-chug does pop it, it brings a rather lighthearted, almost parodic feel to the work, Rather than pursuin' the windiest, burbliest, gimmickiest sound possible with constant, coiled-tongue tum-squash vokill chord stridulation that can often suffocate this kind o' Brutal Death, the vox prefer to narrate the work with genuine guttural huskiness.

There's a strong stench of Dyin' Fetus here, carvin' out the slammiest segments of Killin' on Adrenaline and quite a few from essential slam-hedonist pit-fest Destroy the Opposition, but intensifyin' the chug-rush by strippin' away many rinds of streaky solo-fat and injectin' fermented Internal Bleedin' fluids into it, along with commercial Devourment pharmaceuticals, turnin' the thing to a juicy slab o' mosh-friendly meat. It oozes a sort of Vomit Remnants meets Fetal Decay kind of vibe, maybe with a bit of Poppy Seed Grinder without the high vox. The bland slam bits recall recent tripe like Carnivore Diprosopus or Abominable Putridity, but with a twee 'Momma's little baby loves shortnin' bread' element that recalls the funniest bits of Corpse Fucking Art. Elsewhere, a few other bits bears one or two similarities to bands from in and around their local scene, 'cos some of it's a little bit like the recent Amagortis [review] disc, but overall they're more like their Austrian neighbours, Distorted Impalment.

Production is of sufficient beefiness, with a big, poundin', metallic kit sound, snare a wee bit high but no real detriment to the rest o' the instruments, cos the guitar has a nice balance between the grindin' bassy churn and the high-end string squall, albeit with the mid-stuff bein' a bit distant, with the cranked bass guitar thunderin' along with a nice, big, clean, rounded tone. Vox? Lovely. With regards to packagin', this is presented in a distinctly Patho-Goregrind fashion; plain white pages atop which the lyrics are wrapped around detailed black and white illustrations of organs, bones and other body parts givin' it a medical textbook appearance, a bit like Lymphatic Phlegm (but with less exposed wobbly guts), which seems a bit misaligned with their lyrical content, which covers such typical Gore-topics as mutilation, laceration, torture, violence and necrophilia. Still, the themes are often tackled with a comical approach, especially on the ridiculous "Putrid Fucked Up Dip Potato": "Now I need an oven, I don't like cold flesh / Got to bake a dirty crippled motherfucker to enjoy the full flavour / Of your putrid fucked up happy dip potato face","Sliced Open": "I feel no pain, just this frozen spider / Running so fastly down my back (!)" and "Where is the Fucking Hospital?" which lifts its lyrics directly from Toxic Avenger 4!

Takin' slightly older Brutal Death ideas and crossin' 'em with a few modern-day Broootal antics doesn't make for an enormously original album of course, 'cos if you're a Brutal Death listener you'll have heard the riffs, patterns and vox time and time again from innumerable bands over the years, and I could've probably done without some of the chug of the mill sections, but I found a certain kind o' charm here that kept my ears engaged and had me goin' back for more listens. I was listenin' to em on the 'Bus of Death' to Trutnov to get me in the correct frame of mind for the OEF weekend, then had enormous fun watchin' them as part of the line-up the next day, so that's probably why this album triggers those nice feelings for your dog-eared reviewer. Don't expect ground-breaking genre redefinition from Carnal Pleasures, but expect a satisfyin', entertainin' chunk o' Swiss Brutal Death.

June 18th, 2008