Review Summary: The “Doobie” brothers have never been one to make great artistic statements with their music, but this is closest to the true “spirit” of jazz and rock musicianship that one will ever find. Enjoy the ride . . . just make sure to rinse and repeat.
Xenosapien by Cephalic Carnage
1. Endless cycle of violence
2. DIVINATION & VOLITION
3. MOLTING
4. TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL
5. VAPORIZED
6. HEPTARCHY (IN THE U.K.)
7. G.OBAL O.VERHAUL D.EVICE
8. LET THEM HATE SO LONG AS THEY FEAR
9. THE OMEGA POINT
10. MEGACOSM OF THE AQUAPHOBICS
11. OV VICISSITUDE
There is something just damn enjoyable about this album. I wish I could wax poetic about it’s artistic conceits, of that it indeed has many, but at the end of the day this an extremely technical, yet well composed release from the long-haired patrons of all things hash.
I believe one reviewer brought up Psyopus in reference to this release, which is more than just slightly apt. It is rare to find within the throngs of tech-metal releases these days a band that dares to live so high up the fret board. It seems that even the more death-oriented bands have chosen to craft their songs around a more “hardcore”-centric structure, where the predominant driving force is in power chugs and poly-rhythmic grooves.
Cephalic Carnage have always been an “anomaly” in that while their songs are, thankfully, not straightforward, balls-to-the-walls double kick marathons throughout an album’s entirety, they still revel in creating twisted harmonies as the basis for their songs.
Their past albums have always been mixed affairs with me, where either they leaned too heavily on mind-splitting chord acrobatics or opting to focus on a singular crushing wall of thrash. Again, thankfully, they have finally managed to bring together the immense technicality and song-writing abilities that they have fluidly shown throughout past releases to deliver one the most mind blowing albums of 2007.
The best thing this album has going for it is it’s pacing. The maturity present on this release is staggering for this sort of music. These are individuals who clearly understand music on a fundamental level although they are creating songs that mostly will only by “listened to” (in the loosest sense of the word) by angst-ridden teenagers.
What can I say? Everything here works. The jazz saxophone reprieves. The cacophony of screams that is the hidden track. There is just too much meat on these bones to be picked apart and consumed in one sitting. How Cephalic Carnage managed to push the envelope of rock brutality while cramming in the amount of beautifully disharmonious chord motifs that they did boggles one’s mind.
The “Doobie” brothers have never been one to make great artistic statements with their music, but this is closest to the true “spirit” of jazz and rock musicianship that one will ever find. Enjoy the ride . . . just make sure to rinse and repeat afterwards.
