Testify for My Victims

No matter how you slice it, Testify for My Victims is the best written of Carnal Forge's albums to date, and a very easy recommendation to make for anyone who is by this point still interested in Swedish melodic death metal of the 21st century, and I realize that is a diminishing (or long since diminished) group of people. Improving the archetypal death/thrash of their earlier material while simultaneously widening the level of variation in their songwriting, you've got light traces of groove metal or death & roll applied to the rigorous balance of melodies and punchy, clinical thrashing rhythms to die for, all delivered with the moderation and care of seasoned veterans. There is a depth to the composition which isn't necessarily a broad deviation from previous records, but even the basest chugging patterns here are glazed with just enough mood and melody to make them efficacious to explore.

Perhaps it's the most 'progressive' of their outings, and that's not a bad thing...you've still got much of that propulsive thrash pacing, but a lot more emphasis on mid-speed tunes that explore more complex bridge sections, and take more risks than the older albums without alienating anyone who enjoyed them. The mix here is probably the cleanest I've experienced, but there's quite a lot going on, and even if Testify... might not match its predecessors in sheer momentum and heaviness, it's just so more likely to be remembered weeks, months, or even years after you've heard it. I admit a little bias, since aesthetically this plays out like a kid sibling to Darkane's phenomenal Layers of Lies, one of the best records to ever emerge from this scene and be systematically ignored. It's artsy, modern, surgical in its musicianship, and at times profound, but most importantly it might have carried a note of nuance or originality if not for that other album predating it by a couple years. Not to write this off as some ripoff, because Carnal Forge always worked in parallel to several of their Swedish peers, but it's certainly an album that takes a few spins to fully appreciate and unravel, despite so much of the content being instantly accessible to the At the Gates/Soilwork fan. They obviously took more time releasing this than any of the older works, and it shows.

There's also a similarity to Darkane in vocals: new front man Jens C. Mortensen, who some might have remembered from the Swede-thrash act Slapdash in the 90s, has that same passionate desperate rasp that characterized a Lawrence Mackrory, or more specifically Andreas Sydow. You still get a smattering of the multi-tracked shouts, but Jens is somewhat superior to his predecessor Jonas Kjellgren at embedding some textured, harmonic howls into the verbal battery, while feeling really raw and off his fucking nuts the rest of the time. As clinically polished as the recording is, he always reminds you that this is essentially serial killer death/thrash and better embraces the psychopathy or sociopathy that subject matter entails. To an extent you can still trace the lineage back to Lindberg of At the Gates, but Jens makes it feel like you are being stabbed by a knife through some rift in reality opens up in a dank back-alley or a butcher-shop which is now being used for more nefarious purposes than cheeseburger patties. I don't have the fondest recollections of Slapdash's 240.25 Actual Reality but it was certainly energetic, and he surpasses himself this time around.

Another point in the record's favors is how the drums and bass here really seem to round out the rhythm guitars, rather than just stubbornly support them. The riffs are a little thinner in production, so a meatier warmth to the bass and potent snare strikes seem a better complement. For some reason I was reminded a lot of Tomas Haake's flawless industrialized-human-hybrid style, only Carnal Forge don't play in the same unusual time signatures and the guitars don't cultivate the traditional djent tone. Simpler groove/chugs here all seem to have a direction to them, pointing to the more accelerated passages and also the moodier, more atmospheric sequences. Lyrically, the themes here flow a better between the murderous mayhem that fascinated the Swedes on their earlier efforts to sacrilegious anthems like the wonderfully titled "Godsend Gods End". I really feel that passionate, personal torment and desperation that I so enjoyed on Darkane tracks like "Secondary Effects", and on occasion the meticulous melodies, pinpoint rhythmic punch and Mortensen's grating antipathy make me want to pull my own intestines out and then strangle other people with them...it's futurist, visceral fucking mayhem akin to a high definition slasher flick in which some stylish suit takes out his own imperfections on those around him, a Patrick Bateman for a Swedish Psycho and I heartily recommend it over anything they've ever done before; the promise of Please...die! embodied in the brash control of Layers in Lies, and still a lot of fun to experience years later. It doesn't look like much, but it sounds like much more.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

In the new digital age, it’s rare to see someone walk into a store and buy four or five CD's when they can easily download them. I am one of the few, the proud, who decide to give money to these bands, and I recently bought this album with a few other *cough* better selections.

This album was the worst of the litter, and it is a shame, because one of the other albums (which will remain nameless) is not what I expected as well. What I expect of this album was more straight forward riffing, in their "lame Gothenburg" way. I use that term to describe a generic label given to their early work, I saw a lot of potential in the early stuff, and I was hoping to see this band with something more rhythmic and *ahem* more metal.

Once you listen to the first track, you can predict each transition to a chorus. That’s the thing, every song had the same dam chorus, or at least its chord structure was similar (I know a lot of people want to claim that the lyrics are different so it is different, but this singers lyrics really don’t mean spit anyways, so who cares about that?)

Now to change things up, the band throws in some cool breakdowns. I feel uneasy saying cool, because each little breakdown is disappointing, even as you listen to them. They tend to chop the segments up quicker, and they try to use some criss-crossing patterns in the riffs, that only come off as trite. The soloing however is excellent, and I commend their guitar players for putting some beauty over this generic slop.

I give the album 30 percent for the overall production, as I was enticed to buy it. But those points could go to the previous albums for showing some promise. I have to admit that I haven't listened to that work in detail, but I have given their albums enough spins to have me familiar with them. I bought this to cement my fandom of this band and I am totally disappointed. It pained me to listen to this album; I forced myself to listen to every track.

I am most disappointed in the band in general "realizing their potential like The Haunted and Soilwork." Those bands suck now, and well here goes another one. See you at ozzfest, you make me sick. (Not actually scheduled for ozzfest currently I mean it as a joke)

So, for years Carnal Forge specialized in angry and violent, however extremely one dimensional and generic Gothenthrash. By the time 'Aren't You Dead Yet?' came around, you'd find yourself asking why the band weren't asking themselves that same question. I mean, how many times can you write the same song? There's only so many songs of hyperspeed gothenthrash you can take before you start to say "what the fuck, one album of this is enough..." Two if you're generous and the band is really good at it. Even fellow Swedes The Haunted realized this after making 3 albums of the sound. As did Soilwork ect. A band can start out with this sound, but eventually, there comes a time to move away from it. It's a shame it took Carnal Forge 5 albums, but hey, they finally did and the outcome (the album being reviewed) is excellent. If they wrote this album 3 albums ago, they probably could have gotten to the height of Soilwork or The Haunted, y'know before the band tarnished their name with the term 'generic'. 6 albums in, most people are going to say 'oh, new Carnal Forge album....not interested in Gothenthrash anymore sorry...', but the crime with that is, this album is so much more than that. They have FINALLY EVOLVED, this is a record that deserves listening.

Here, they took the core Carnal Forge sound and added so much to it. They added melodies, hooks, a crushing rhythm section and guitar wizardry. The Kuusisto brothers are stunning on this outing, constantly throwing out time changes, and complex riffs WHILE MOST IMPORTANTLY keeping things precise and cutting out superfluous nonsense. So occasionally you're obviously going to get some classic Carnal Forge, but most of the time, this record is the band trying new things and it sounds wonderful. Guitar solo whores, this album is for you.

Another strong point, is new vocalist Jens Mortensen. As a vocalist, he has tons of charisma and actually has a face. He possesses a unique voice that really makes the band shine this time around. He's an extremely big factor here as this album wouldn't be nearly as special if Jonas Kjellgren were still in the band.

Also, the drumming on this record is impeccable. Everything I've grew to love about drumming throughout my years of listening to Metal is heard on this album. Great fills, random crashes, rhythmic double kick. The overall technique shown here by Stefan Westerberg is just jaw dropping and adds another element that MAKES this album.

What makes this particular album so great, is every band members feeds off the other to construct a concise machine. Case in point, if you removed even one of the elements, this album would lose something to the extent that this album wouldn't be good. Ya, it goes that far. This album is the obvious work of a band working in unison and creating a defining album of their career.

To close, the evolution the band shows here makes me eagerly anticipate their next outing. I can't wait to see where the band will go next. Former Death Thrash bands sure do make excellent music when they evolve...

Recommended Listening: Burning Eden, Godsend Gods End, Biological Waste Matter.

Carnal Forge have always pushed the envelope, so to speak. But with the addition of vocalist Jens Mortensen, they have have transformed into a true beast of a metal band. The band is faster, tighter, more melodic and more brutally heavy than ever before. Yet, as is clearly observed in songs such as Burning Eden, Questions Pertaining the Ownership of My Mind, and Biological Waste Matter, CF manages to sound fresh and new, thanks in part to the mind-blowingly technical dual-guitar attack of the Kuusisto brothers.

The guitar sound is ultra-heavy on songs like Subhuman and Lost Legion, yet the beauty of this album is in the abundance of delicately crafted guitar leads. QPTOOM kicks off with an ultra-speedy, highly progressive riff that would make Jeff Loomis envious. From start to finish, every song is full of highlights, harmony-drenched choruses and a wickedly aggressive, understated vocal performance by Mortensen. Freedom By Mutilation showcases a very catchy chord progression. Subhuman, my favorite track on the record (and by far the heaviest) unleashes a ridiculous chromatic riff of death on top of Mortensen's relentless screams: "PLACE YOURSELF IN LINE TO DIE YOU CAN'T GET AWAY!"

The album features some astounding drumming that's hard to miss on such songs as Godsend God's End and the title track. Ante Mori is the only slow song to be found on the album, yet it rounds out this riff-fest rather nicely. Some brutal deathgrind moments can be found on Numb (The Dead). The only minor criticism I can think of is that the bass guitar doesn't really stand out and is often difficult to hear. Bottom line: If modern, technical thrash is your thing, Testify For My Victims is one album you won't want to miss. This is an easy choice for #1 album of 2007 for me thus far.