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CARNAL SAVAGERY
Scent Of Death

Moribund (2022)
Rating: 7/10

It’s now three albums in three years for this prolific Swedish clan, who churn out trusty death metal bulging with the hallmarks which made the scene so great and recognisable in the early 90s.

The trouble is, there are hordes of similar sounding bands doing this now and it can be quite exhausting. That’s not to say that this Gothenburg quintet is doing anything wrong, they are merely coughing up the phlegm that comes natural to them… it’s just the familiarity of it all.

Scent Of Death runs its course for over 30 minutes and savages you like a rabid hellhound. The band rarely let up as the buzzsaw guitars rip n’ tear in feverish fashion through such cannibalistic cuts as ‘Rotten Immortals’ and ‘Cranial Sodomy’, both of which bring a frothy thrashing rage.

At their slowest, Carnal Savagery still leaves infected bite wounds, the hammering ‘Leeches’ being a prime example of the steady gnashing this band can produce.

The Entombed, Dismember, and Carnage influence is obvious, and Carnal Savagery doesn’t shy away from such homage. Instead, they get their heads down, rev up the chainsaws and carve through flesh without mercy.

From feisty, scathing opener ‘Deformed Bodies’ to the horrific piledriver that is the title track, this remains an unrelenting, lashing beast of an opus fuelled by the snappy retorts of vocalist Mattias Lilja.

As I said, this is very much sourced from the 90s Stockholm sound; for the most part generic but always volatile. It’s obvious these guys just want to have fun and their tirades force their way into your ears whether you like it or not. Choppy waters are to be navigated when sailing the seas of Carnal Savagery, and while the journey may be a very familiar route you’ll still emerge bruised and battered as if Rogga Johansson was at the helm.

Neil Arnold

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