CARNIFEX

Often overlooked and frequently underestimated, CARNIFEX have been a steady and reliable presence at deathcore's near-mainstream frontline for the best part of 20 years. Some of the San Diego bands' peers have enjoyed a more fruitful relationship with the industry hype machine, but virtually no one has been as productive. "More Than Misery", the band's tenth studio album, marks an admirable milestone in their career. This is also their first for Sumerian Records, after a largely successful run with Nuclear Blast that never quite hit the heights that such a partnership seemed to promise. Whether or not Sumerian will be the label to push CARNIFEX over the top and into the deathly big time is a matter for sweet fortune to adjudicate, but when it comes to their new music, nothing about "More Than Misery" points to a desire to compromise or to hollow out the brutality that has long been an essential component. In fact, this is plainly the most savage and unrelenting record that Scott Lewis and his comrades have ever made.

Last time out, CARNIFEX were making music that struck a fine balance between outright brutality and a certain melodic and theatrical sheen. By most comparable standards, 2023's "Necromanteum" was a big budget bid for mainstream acceptance, albeit one with plenty of the blastbeats and gruesome imagery that the genre depends upon. Three years on, "More Than Misery" is only vaguely recognizable as the work of the same band. With much of their former production gleam viciously scraped away, these new songs are delivered straight from Hell's gaping maw, blood-drenched, shit-stained and horribly deformed. CARNIFEX are still more than capable of delivering a crunching breakdown and a groove-powered riff or three, but from the opening onslaught of the title track, this is an album with more obvious, spiritual links to visceral, underground metal, where all light must be extinguished and the violence comes without warning and, more importantly, without any semblance of a knowing wink to camera. Maybe this is just how deathcore is destined to evolve, given the abominable state of things, but we are unlikely to get anything this foul or fucked up from LORNA SHORE or WHITECHAPEL. Witness the melodramatic horrors of "Coffin Crowned King", which begins with a pretty, acoustic intro, but then erupts into a kind of perma-blasting sickness, as discordance and vitriolic churn threatens to swallow remnants of tasteful chord changes whole and Scott Lewis's trademark growls seem to mutate into something uniquely nasty and inhuman. Similarly, "Only The Dead" is so warped and extreme that any shreds of melody and groove are steadily eaten alive by the sheer ugliness of it all, and surging, quasi-orchestral embellishments come across like the hiss and bubble of molten lava, filling every available nook and cranny with white hot fury.

There are a couple of songs that dare to continue the subtly palatable approach that CARNIFEX mastered over their last few albums. "The Process Of Pain" is the catchiest thing here, not least due to a crushing contribution from ENTHEOS's Chaney Crabb, and "Heart Made Of Teeth" is a venomous but vital slab of obnoxious, 21st century deathcore that will have circle pits flailing. But as they prove on jaw-dropping, eight-minute finale "Licking Love From A Knife", CARNIFEX are in no mood to pander to less adventurous audiences. As disgusting ideas come thick and fast, and bursts of technology threaten to interrupt the unremitting violence, "More Than Misery" has both feet firmly planted in the malevolent mire, and it suits this band perfectly. This is a fearless sprint down the left-hand path.