Cephalic Carnage deliver us their fifth full length album entitled Xenosapien, an album that will end up high in my yearlist I can tell you. The Rocky Mountain hydro grinders have returned to give your THC-drenched brain the beating of a lifetime!

I cannot sit still to this record man, it’s just fucking killer!! Cephalic Carnage have by far written their most accessible album without commercialising or losing their own sound. Their grindcore based crazy math noise has moved to a more death metal foundation, thus grooving even more at one time and being just as insane as always on other albums. The use of other styles comes forward more clear as well. It is obvious they like black metal with the track ‘Touched By An Angel’ and the doomy ‘G.lobal O.verhaul D.evice’ is a great moment to relax and get some air before the mayhem continues.

 

The production is by far the most professional and clear they have ever had. Three months of studio time have really payed off I’d say. The only thing to complain about in that area is the fact that they don’t sound a little messy and irritating (and I mean that in a good way) as they used to. This is mainly caused by the absence of a bass distortion. Bassist Nick’s first recordings with the band have proved he wants to do it differently, and I don’t mind really. The drums are even more insane than before, having recorded for 130 hours must be a hell of a job, but the result is definitely there.

 

For me personally the track ‘Heptarchy (In The U.K.)’ is among my favourites, the combination of brutal as fuck rock/metal riffs with insane mathcore stuff really turns me on. ‘Divination & Volition’ is another one of those as well. And for some reason there is an unlisted twelfth track that consists of doom metal and is supposed to be for dogs. Hitting an untouched market there I’d say, metal for dogs!

 

Conclusion: this shit totally fucking grinds and smokes you like hell! If you weren’t into this band already (in this case just buy the thing) you might consider giving them a try now. With this sound, a wider audience is probably more easily reached. Get it, play it until you memorize each and every note and go out to their shows here in August and fucking destroy shit! Smoke, grind, mosh!