CARNAGE — Dark Recollections (review)

CARNAGE — Dark Recollections album cover Album · 1990 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"Dark Recollections" is the debut full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Carnage. The album was released through Relativity/Earache Records in February 1990. There´s a twist to the release story though as "Dark Recollections" was originally paired with "Hallucinating Anxiety (1990)" by Norwegian death metal act Cadaver for a split release through Necrosis/Earache Records and "Dark Recollections" was only later in the year released as an independent album.

Carnage started out as a goregrind act in the vein of early Carcass, but quickly changed their sound to death metal. The band was started by guitarist/bassist Michael Amott and he is the sole founding member left in the lineup for this release. The other members of the lineup on "Dark Recollections" all came from a recently disbanded Dismember. Fred Estby plays the drums, Matti Kärki handles the vocals and David Blomqvist plays guitar. This lineup would also be a temporary one though as Michael Amott would soon leave to join Carcass. As a consequence Carnage folded and the three remaining members would reform Dismember.

The music on "Dark Recollections" is old school Swedish death metal. Recorded in the Sunlight Studios and produced by Fred Estby, Mike Amott and Tomas Skogsberg. The album has the signature brutal, fat buzzing sound that many early nineties Swedish death metal releases feature. The music is simple and brutal, yet effective and quite catchy. "Left Hand Path (1990)" by Entombed and "Like an Everflowing Stream (1991)" by Dismember are the closests relatives and valid references (in addition to sharing several members Dismember re-recorded some Carnage tracks so that reference is pretty obvious). Just like those two albums, "Dark Recollections" also features a Dan Seagrave cover artwork.

"Dark Recollections" is one of those classic Swedish death metal albums that you have to listen to in order to gain understanding of the old school Swedish death metal style. It´s a seminal death metal album from the early nineties but it´s not just a classic album it´s also a quality one within the genre, featuring decent playing, good songwriting, and a powerful sound production. It´s one of those albums that actually deserves the classic stamp. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is warranted.
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