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CARNATION
Chapel Of Abhorrence

Season Of Mist (2018)
Rating: 7/10

Entombed, Six Feet Under, Cannibal Corpse, Dismember, Carnage, Bloodbath… Throw them all into a blender and you get Carnation, a Belgium clan of ghouls who bring a frothing style of black ‘n’ roll grinding to their debut offering for Season Of Mist.

It’s a familiar tale, admittedly, but with extra eerie chimes as the party succumbs to large lumps of mimicry to create their catchy, festering blocks of salivating groove death. I still do wonder why bands edge towards such familiar sounds, but overall Chapel Of Abhorrence is an infectious heap boasting 11 solid songs that feature that rather symbolic air of melancholy and morbidity.

Opener ‘The Whisperer’ adheres to type, but combining loose chainsaw utterings in the guitar before giving way to murky solos of sombreness. It’s not quite 1990, but as albums go it does have that strong old school feel without fully immersing me in annoyance. However, right down to Simon Duson’s vocal growls, there’s that Swedish aping. Thankful am I then that tracks such as ‘The Unconquerable Sun’, ‘Hatred Unleashed’ and ‘Plaguebreeder’ have tints of edginess and accessibility by way of seemingly natural matches of speed and more sombre prowess, but it’s still very much Swedish death metal by numbers straight outta Belgium!

I’m still convinced that bands of this ilk should, when structuring their sound, be looking at different paths to take instead of the left hand one. The reality is, several decades after the original Swedish boom, we don’t need countless newer acts ploughing the same field. Nevertheless, Carnation are clearly unflinching in their quest for that particular sound; the hammering ‘Hellfire’, the more measured ‘Sermon Of The Dead’ and ‘Fathomless Depths’ all traipse with familiarity, but it’s still a good listen with strands of Jungle Rot, Vader and Grave thrown in to add extra spice to that already archetypal cover art.

With the likes of Tomb Mold, Mortuous et al releasing compositions of morbidity and class, I don’t see how Carnation’s debut is going to make its mark, in spite of being in your face from the off and offering numerous chunks of face-ripping torment. Chapel Of Abhorrence does make for a frustrating listen at times, even with its faster Deicide-esque tones and solid production. And as well, I do find the vocals all too similar to George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher (Cannibal Corpse). Through the obvious flaws, however, one may still submit to the crunching riffage and general theme, even if it is predictable fair.

Neil Arnold

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