CEPHALIC CARNAGE’S XENOSAPIEN AND DESPISED ICON’S THE ILLS OF MODERN MAN: TWO HEAVY AS F**K ALBUMS YOU SHOULD OWN
Two recent death metal releases have had our ears’ attention since their respective releases last month, and we’re here to tell: anyone looking for an album to rip your fucking nut sack off, look no further.
What can I say about Cephalic Carnage that hasn’t already been said? They calls themselves “hydro death metal,” a term they admit means nothing and serves no purpose other than to tell the world what the world already knew, which is that these dudes smoke lots and lots of weed.
Except it does kind of mean something: this band’s isn’t special just because they can write a killer death metal album – they’re special because of the bizarre little flourishes they throw in (which, I’d hypothesize, are, at least in part, a side product of being stoned so often). There’s seemingly no style of extreme music these dudes can’t pull off – grindcore, tech death -often within a single song. Strange interludes and a sometimes startling use of clean singing every so often will constantly keeps the listener on his or her toes. Of course, Cephalic Carnage can also do the whole Cannibal Corpse-all out war thing, too – and they do a bloody good job.
In a lot of ways, then, Despised Icon seem like disciples of Cephalic Carnage. Like their deathcore brethren in All Shall Perish, Despised Icon play crushing death metal with a distinct sense of groove and the occasional, well placed gang yell thrown in for emphasis. Unlike All Shall Perish, these dudes seem to have a bad case of A.D.D., and I mean that in the best possible way: like a prog metal band on crack, Despised Icon’s music has an elasticity to it, bouncing back and forth between an ungodly amount of riffs in a single song. Co-singers Alex Erian and Steve Marois keep things interesting by moving from Glen Benton-style growls to high pitched screeches, and the guitar solos are, well, very fast and very awesome.
Put more simply: fans of extreme music need to own Xenosapien and The Ills of Modern Man. Period.
Both albums:
(four out of five horns)
-AR
