It’s been a couple of years now since Carnifex returned from their brief hiatus to release Die Without Hope, an album that proved to be the most atmospheric and altogether wide-ranging offering of their career.
It’s pleasing, then, that their sixth and latest full-length, Slow Death, finds the San Diego deathcore quintet continuing to push those more rounded musical sensibilities even further to the fore.
There’s a breadth of ideas in the songwriting that, perhaps even more than before, work to hold the interest while you’re having the skin ripped clean from your face. Symphonic touches lend menace to the already pummelling title track, a blackened thread runs like an icy vein through the groove and crush of Drown Me In Blood and Six Feet Closer To Hell, Life Fades To A Funeral provides an atmospheric instrumental respite while short, dirge-like touches add flavour to the assault of Countess Of The Crescent Moon. It has to be said, though, that Carnifex still aren’t breaking any new musical ground with Slow Death, but one thing’s for sure – you just can’t argue with the quality and effectiveness what’s on offer.
