First, a short description. Combine Suffocation with The Dillinger Escape Plan and raise the intensity to grindcore. Consider every style of music possible for inspiration and that’s Cephalic Carnage. Yes, these Rocky Mountain hydrogrinders are definitely something different. And they’ve taken their music up another level with the release of Anomalies.

 

The coolest new thing in my opinion is the track “Piecemaker”. Heavy-ass-fuck stoner metal bursting every blood scab of your body. I knew they were very well capable of making some fine doom metal (just listen to the Halls Of Amenti EP), but this I did not see coming. Brutal sound, catchy riffs and a cool chorus to sing along. Murdering bastards!!!

 

So, the album consist of phat brutal death/grind songs with some experiments among and in them. The bass kick has been pumped up a lot, contrary to their previous work, but I kinda like it better this way. The clean guitar parts sound better than the previous albums, and that truly is an acquisition. Especially in the last track “Ontogeny Of Behaviour” which has a beautiful guitar tune with some hilarious vocals on them. Imagine a kind of phase grunts. You have to hear it to believe it.

 

The guest performances on Anomalies contain some respected names in metal and grindcore. Napalm Death’s Barney for instance does a brilliant track called “The Will Or The Way” in which he and Len are trying to convince us that “kicking people is bad, people should never do it!”

Another cool one is their producer Dave Otero singing on the first single “Dying Will Be The Death Of Me”. He does (I suspect) some Iron Maiden kinda vocals, singing the title of the song while at the same time Len grunts it. Sounds very cool!

 

I personally think that instead of making Dillinger grind songs they’ve accented the technical Suffocation death metal parts more on this record. So in other words, Anomalies is less hectic than for instance Lucid Interval. So is that a bad thing? Certainly not if you ask me! They’ll probably reach a bigger audience with this while maintaining the true Carnage sound. Awesome release that truly grows on you just like the previous albums. So now I’ll Kill For Weed!

Line-up:
Len – vocals

Steve – guitar

Zac – guitar

Jawsh – bass

John – drums

 

Tracklist:
1. Scientific Remote Viewing 
2. Wraith 
3. Counting The Days 
4. The Will Or The Way 
5. Piecemaker 
6. Enviovore 
7. Dying Will Be The Death Of Me 
8. Inside Is Out 
9. Sleeprace 
10. Kill For Weed 
11. Litany Of Failure 
12. Ontogeny Of Behaviour