EXPLOITING DYSFUNCTION

Many years ago, I was told that Cephalic Carnage was the heaviest band on mother earth. It has taken me until this week to get hold of this album though. Call me "slow on the uptake".

Cephalic Carnage does grindcore.... but not straight forward grindcore like Napalm Death, Rot and Nasum. Cephalic Carnage includes a lot of other elements into their music. Jazz, avant-garde, sludge core and most other atonal music. Their sound is still very heavy and impossible to penetrate for most people. But there is intelligent life beyond the tonnes of bricks they throw at you. There is almost too much intelligent life because I sometimes long for more grind core and less avant-garde in their music. When Cephalic Carnage blast at 200 miles an hour, they are really brutal. The same goes for the more slower death metal parts. Those parts are actually very good.

My gripes with this album is more with the avant-garde pling plong parts which I feel is too drawn out and meaningless. But Cephalic Carnage and probably all their albums can still be regarded as intelligent grindcore. For that reason, I really like this album. I think the band is onto something here and their inclusion in ProgArchives is deserved. I will keep an eye out for this band. Is Cephalic Carnage the heaviest band in the world ? Maybe......

3 stars