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Imagine crossing Cynic with the worst grind band around, for example, Mortician.
What would come out of it? Cephalic Carnage.
These champions of the beneficial virtues of marijuana et similia (take a look at their site) are said to make some nice Hydro Grind... What that means I’m not entirely sure, but they definitely try to recreate through their music that Cephalic Carnage they achieve in other ways.
Try to imagine... no, what am I saying? You could never imagine anything like it. Here, total irrationality reigns; the disregard for the listener reaches its highest peaks, and you’ll find it hard to think you're not in a basement listening to your goofy friends jamming or rather “Grind-ing.”
Have you ever heard a record where halfway through the song, the rhythm suddenly slows down, as if the CD is scratched or something, but then gradually picks up speed until it suddenly stops and leaves you speechless? No, don’t think of effects added during mixing; it’s all real, our dear Cephalic Carnage have guts and then some.
Have you ever heard an album where from a typical grind phrasing based on blast beats you are immediately catapulted into an atmospheric part, extremely dissonant, almost jazzy for the time signatures and absurd accents, almost Cynic-like, only to return to reality and be engulfed again by a kind of human drum machine accompanied by a little Sam Fisher gurgling all his rage and madness?
Cephalic Carnage are this and more, dissonant riffs, refined compositional madness and a constant contradiction, shifting from rhythms more suited for jazz due to their absurdity to simple walls of sound from dropped guitars, blast beats, and terrifying growls.
Now, I don't know if this is the result of a genuine skill/madness of the musicians or if the mindset and compositional "skill" is notably enhanced by the use (or abuse) of the aforementioned plants, but I assume it’s due to both factors. This will probably be the only Cephalic Carnage review I’ll do as there are no significant differences within their discography, apart from their latest mini CD which is part of a trilogy exploring the most extreme and "suffering" boundaries of doom.
I haven't even talked about individual songs because they all sound a bit alike (not to say that’s a flaw, eh!!!); they’re all composed of these elements: a couple of pure grind riffs, another couple of typical American death metal like Deicide, and numerous jazz intermissions, highly dissonant and incredibly beautiful, real gems embedded in so much brutality.
Mix these elements at random and you more or less have the structure of all the songs on this Exploiting Dysfunction, but also all their other CDs; I chose this one because the cover was interesting. However, I would advise against buying any of their CDs, because: one, they are hard to find and two, approach this group cautiously because what Cephalic Carnage does will not appeal to anyone without some affinity for grind or Cynic/jazz and dissonance in general.
If, however, you like the aforementioned things, you won’t be able to help but consider these American guys your new idols. Open your minds, clear a bit of hard drive space and find a spot for these crazies, they deserve it.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
14 Paralyzed by Fear (01:38)
It amazes me
the crazy ways people have died
The time you have to react
is so crucial to your survival
Freezing in shock is why people die
Can't control the inner reaction
as to what the mind sends
Paralyzed by fear you cannot move
and wound up dead
Like when you die in your sleep
from someone killing you
An intruder breaking into a house
pulls a knife on you
Slicing off your breast,
Proceeds to rape
For a second you could have escaped,
but paralyzed by fear, scared...
he kills you
A man in the woods
stumbles onto a grizzly bear
Because he was scared
Ends up mauled instead
A cop yells out "FREEZE!" to a man
who tries to escape
Ends up dead from bullet wounds...
Could have escaped the train
coming for you
But you were paralyzed by fear
Have a nice death!
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