Kev Rowland Not long before turning to their eight album, Carnifex lost lead guitarist Jordan Lockrey, and the core quartet decided to continue as they were for the time being, which allowed a little more room in the music for the bass to make it presence felt. Given it was nearly fifteen years since their debut, ‘Dead In My Arms’, they also revisited that and re-recorded three of those songs for inclusion on this album – only bassist Fred Calderon did not play on the originals as he joined just after it was recorded, with the rest of the line-up of course being founder members Shawn Cameron (drums) and Scott Lewis (vocals) with guitarist Cory Arford.

This album was engineered in-house by drummer Shawn Cameron, the band recorded it almost entirely themselves with the help of Mick Kenney for the mixing and mastering, which means they had total control over the whole process. It also allowed them to reacquaint themselves with working as a quartet and what that meant for the music, and while there are overlays it is not to the extent one would expect with a twin guitar attack, and the arrangements are more balanced with Scott often brought back into the band as opposed to being over the top. They have a blackened approach to their deathcore, and the result is polished and exciting, although not quite as menacing as one might expect given the artwork. During the tumultuous year past, a new rawness arose, and examining this rawness ended up being a form of retreat. “It was another set of events that we couldn’t have predicted; sitting home, no alternatives other than to look at your problems, and write some music. In that setting, you get a very visceral version of us,” explains Lewis. “It makes for a very intense album, not just through the writing process, but through the listening journey, as well.”

This is a great place to start with Carnifex, who have a new life and presence with this release, and it will be interesting to see where they go from here. Fans of deathcore certainly need to seek this out.

Kev Rowland Carnifex are one of those oddities, in that their core line-up has been incredibly stable pretty much since formation, and they even survived a year-long hiatus intact. At the time of this their sixth album in 2016, they still had founder members Shawn Cameron (drums) and Scott Lewis (vocals) while Fred Calderon (bass) and Cory Arford had both been there since 2007, with just guitarist Jordan Lockrey being relatively new, joining the band in 2013 when they started up again. When looking around at reviews it is interesting to see that this is quite a polarising album in that many people love it, while others feel it should not even be listened to as it is that bad. As for me, I definitely subscribe more to the former view than the latter, as while it may not be the most exciting release out there, it has something which lifts it from many.

This is deathcore, and while we do get a gentle moment or two in “Life Fades To A Funeral”, for the most part this is full on with heavy riffs and a band which are very tight indeed. The first half of “Countess of the Crescent Moon” actually shows a striking departure from the norm as if the whole album was like this then we may well be talking more about Cradle of Filth style Black Metal, but they soon return to form and growls combined with hard-hitting riffs and pummelling drums. Given how long these guys have played together it is no surprise they are tight, and they are certainly not strangers to being out on the road playing with the likes of Cannibal Corpse to the somewhat lighter Parkway Drive, which shows the cross genre appeal they have.

Polished yet still heavy, with finesse here and there, this is an enjoyable romp through the genre.

Necrotica Back in a 2010 interview with Noisecreep, when asked about being part of the deathcore scene, Carnifex vocalist Scott Lewis stated: "We're not one of those bands trying to escape the banner of deathcore. I know a lot of bands try and act like they have a big problem with that, but if you listen to their music, they are very 'deathcore.'” And that mentality has been incredibly important to the Carnifex sound over the years. Many bands have tried to escape deathcore’s large, infamous shadow to seek what a large constituent of the metal scene would consider more “respectable” genres of extreme music. Just think back to Job for a Cowboy’s eventual transformation into a progressive death metal act with Sun Eater, or Whitechapel’s excursion into more experimental territory with 2019’s The Valley. But Carnifex are a bit different. While they’ve added a nice helping of black metal influence and a menacing atmosphere to their music over the years, there’s something to be said for a group that stays in the same genre and tries to perfect it as much as they can.

With Graveside Confessions, this trend most certainly continues. While the lack of Jordan Lockrey’s solos continues to be felt, Cory Arford’s relatively diverse guitar leads fill in the cracks nicely. Something that immediately stands out about this record compared to past Carnifex albums is that the transitions are starting to become much smoother, whether it be the seamless fusion of melodic and groovy segments that make up “Carry Us Away” or the way the beautifully melancholic instrumental “January Nights” is followed up perfectly by the furious aggression of “Cemetery Wander”. The black metal elements are also on full display on Graveside Confessions, and they remain a welcome presence. “Countess of Perpetual Torment” (which already sounds like a Cradle of Filth song title as it is) is probably the biggest example of such, even combining its tremolo guitar riffs with a nice backdrop of symphonic keyboards to increase the spookiness factor.

But again, the band still haven’t strayed away from the beaten deathcore path they’ve trodden since their inception; instead, it’s all about the little tweaks they’ve made to their sound over time. Even the breakdowns themselves have become much more creative; while the end of “Cursed” sports a pretty simple chug, the strange out-of-tune guitar lead in the background immediately provides a more intriguing and haunted feel to the outro as a whole. Then you have “Talk to the Dead”, which has a recurring melodic riff that’s presented in different ways throughout the tune. It starts out in a black metal-influenced tremolo-picked manner, only for Arford to eventually fashion a harmonized guitar outro with the same melody. Little bits of diversity like this are what often separate Carnifex from the deathcore pack, and perhaps the best song to represent this would be the instrumental track “January Nights”. It’s worth noting that the band have already done a song like this before, with “Dead in My Eyes” and “Life Fades to a Funeral” immediately coming to mind. However, “January Nights” is like the culmination of their efforts with those tracks; this is the first time they’ve attempted a full-length non-interlude piece in this style, and it’s a fantastic way to break up the aggression the rest of the album exhibits.

Still, not all is perfect. I’m a bit baffled as to why the re-recorded songs weren’t just released as bonus tracks. Sure, it’s cool to hear these old Carnifex songs in a new light - and with better production, of course - just to see how far they’ve come. However, if you’re trying to listen to Graveside Confessions from front to back, just be aware that this one’s much more of a time sink than the band’s previous records because of these re-recorded cuts. Also, as is the case with just about every Carnifex album, the lyrics are still pretty damn shaky. Random f-bombs are still scattered about to remove the listener from a given song’s atmosphere, and stuff like “One of these souls has a shelf life/that fucker wanted me dead by 25/and every day since I’ve been restless/I know it’s just a matter of time” (from “Seven Souls”) is just as cringy as it’s ever been. Unfortunately, given the lack of progression found in the quality of Carnifex’s lyrics, I somehow doubt they’ll get much better in the future.

Regardless, Graveside Confessions stands as one of the band’s best works to date alongside Slow Death and Until I Feel Nothing. I feel as though they’ve finally settled into a pattern now, in the sense that you usually know what you’re going to get with a Carnifex record but it’s guaranteed to be a cut above your average deathcore act. They know what they’re about, and they’ll continue to strive for the best version of themselves with each passing release. Much like Cannibal Corpse before them, there’s a consistency in Carnifex’s output that’s admirable whether you enjoy their work or not; their brand is a reliable seal of quality, and Graveside Confessions is yet another feather in their cap.

Necrotica For anyone who’s been listening to Carnifex since the Dead in My Arms, it’s crazy how much they’ve evolved over the years. Back in 2007, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who didn’t lump them in with either Suicide Silence or Job for a Cowboy… or basically any big deathcore band from the Myspace era. But the way the first wave of deathcore splintered off into so many offshoots is fascinating in and of itself. Job for a Cowboy now makes progressive death metal in the vein of The Faceless or Rivers of Nihil, while Suicide Silence spent their last album making “TEE-HEE”-ridden nu-metal rip-offs. Meanwhile, you have bands like Shadow of Intent bringing more credibility to the genre than ever. But Carnifex is in a bit of an interesting place as far as the deathcore scene goes.

They’re probably one of the most well-respected deathcore bands around, mostly because they’ve had such a notable evolution over the years. As every album passed, there was more of an emphasis on black metal and traditional death metal elements rather than the pure deathcore they were once known for. Sure, the deathcore is still there, but I often find that the more they stray from that genre, the better they get. So here we are at World War X, another suitably punishing and brutal effort that also experiments with a lot of the same textures and dark atmospheres that permeate the band’s later work. Not only does the finished product sound hellish and uncompromising throughout its 35-minute run, but the vibe is also incredibly depressing and hopeless as well.

For instance, you have the beautiful classical piano sections in “This Infernal Darkness,” which manage to be both unsettling and downcast at the same time. They provide a perfect contrast to the heavy riffs, which is something I can also say about Alyssa White-Gluz’s clean vocals that are scattered about “No Light Shall Save Us.” There’s something apocalyptic about the way her singing is combined with the throat-shredding growls of Scott Lewis; mix that in with some doomy melodies and chugging, and it’s all very effective in sucking you into its unique world. In general though, the melodic moments have just gotten much better than before. “Brushed by the Wings of Demons” boasts a beautiful Anata-esque harmonized guitar solo in the midst of its crushing death metal, while guest guitarist Angel Vivaldi brings a nice neoclassical touch to “All Roads Lead to Hell.”

Of course, the metal itself is still just as chaotic and intense as ever. But every album boasts more of a technical slant than the previous one, and World War X is no exception. Jordan Lockrey’s lead guitar work is getting more and more intricate - especially in regards to his solos - and Shawn Cameron continues to incorporate more elaborate tricks into his drumming. This is probably the largest amount of tempo shifts he’s ever had to plow through on a Carnifex album, and he’s absolutely up to the task. On “Eyes of the Executioner,” the musicians are called upon to switch tempos and moods almost constantly, such as immediately switching from a breakdown to an onslaught of blastbeat-ridden black metal riffs. Stuff like that is great when it comes to adding more variety into the mix. “All Roads to Hell” also taps into this nicely by getting faster and faster with every few measures to constantly ratchet up the tension before finally resorting to blast beats and thrash riffs to make their point.

However, the one downside here is that there’s still not quite enough innovation here to mark the album as a huge step forward. There’s a temptation to label the album as “just another Carnifex record” despite the abundance of great music we’ve got here. Plus, the lyrics - while dark and suitably creepy - are starting to get a bit tired and played out by this point. They fit the atmosphere, yes, but a little more effort thrown into the imagery and themes wouldn’t hurt. But hey, at least it’s better than the near-constant stream of F-bombs we were greeted with on 2014’s Die Without Hope! So I suppose that’s a good thing. Anyway, I do highly recommend World War X. Is it a huge leap forward in terms of stylistic innovation? No. But it’s just an incredibly solid slab of death metal that implements its deathcore and black metal elements in all the right places. And when you get down to it, these guys are still leaving about 90% of their deathcore contemporaries in the dust, so you enjoy the genre, you shouldn’t be disappointed in any way by this record.

Vim Fuego Seen as one of the leading lights of the deathcore scene, Carnifex have gained a lot of notice in the metal and social media. If “Slow Death” is any indicator to go by, it’s another case of hype building up the mediocre to a status far beyond that it deserves.

“Slow Death” in a word, is boring.

Music is supposed to cause some sort of strong reaction in a listener, whether it be raptures of ecstasy at a Beethoven symphony or Slayer’s “Reign In Blood”, or disgust at vile Autopsy lyrics, or even uncomfortable laughter at terribly politically incorrect Anal Cunt song titles. Apathy is not a strong nor useful reaction to music, which is what this album induces.

Yes, the band members in Carnifex are highly skilled musicians. Yes, the music has excellent production values. These are not what’s at fault here. The biggest problem is the straight-jacketed genre of music these musicians perform. It is unoriginal, predictable, interchangeable, and ultimately dull.

There’s no need to isolate any highlights, because there aren’t any, but there’s no discernible low points either. This album is ten tracks of heavy, competently executed metal, with death metal-ish vocals and a few electronic flourishes. All ten are virtually indistinguishable.

Deathcore’s protectors will rabidly devour this album. That is their right. It is also the right of everyone else not to have to subject themselves to such uninspiring music.