Carnage can be called one of those one-hit wonders of old school death metal. The band was initially formed as a grindcore band calling themselves
Global Carnage at the end of 1988 but later renamed themselves and started playing straight up death metal. The band is considered one of the pioneers of Swedish death metal and was notable for having Matti Karki, David Blomqvist and Fred Estby of Dismember fame, along with Arch Enemy founder, Micheal Ammot. Sadly the band split up after releasing their only album,
Dark Recollections in 1990, but it’s probably safe to say that their fans won’t hold it against them for breaking up as it led to the indomitable Dismember coming out of their hiatus.
It is a given that if you enjoyed
Dismember’s
Like an Ever Flowing Stream then you’re going to love this album, mainly because both albums have a similar sound (for obvious reasons) with this one having a slightly rawer production then the afore mentioned album.
Dark Recollections starts off with the title track being thrown in your face and before you even know what’s happening, you’re assaulted by riffs galore. David Blomqvist and Micheal Ammot go all out in trying to rip the listener’s face off and it must be said that they do a fantastic job considering the fact that they were still in their teens (17 to 19) back then. They provide the all too well known “chainsaw” riffs that early Swedish death metal was so famous for, throwing in some melodic leads and solos though not as much you would expect from the two axe-men as they were still young at the time and slightly short on experience. The vocal department is expertly handled by a youthful Matti Karki, providing his gutturals and sounding like the crazy mofo he is but in some cases he even utilizes some deeper growls which definitely helped add to the grim atmosphere of the album. The drum works aren’t fabulous in any way but Estby holds his own and does well to keep up with the constant riffing madness with his fills and blast beats
Considering the fact that they were originally grindcore, the band still maintain some of their former elements, as can be seen in songs like Gentle Exhuming but the real flare of the band can be heard on songs like the title track, Death Evocation (later covered by
Dismember) and Infestation of Evil where the listener can hear and appreciate how mature and cohesive their work is, considering the age of the band members, and after listening to this, listeners will probably feel like someone drove a chainsaw through their brains but they’ll keep coming back for more because they will enjoy how insane the album is.
Although
Carnage produced a monster of an album, their work was thrown into obscurity due to their short time together and also because of the emergence of heavy weights like
Entombed,
Dismember and
Grave but those who know of the band know of their influence on the scene and consider this album a cult classic.
Dark Recollections should serve as a reminder for youngsters starting death metal bands nowadays that this is how you should play proper death metal: dark, evil, heavy as *** and, most importantly, gay free.
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