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Cephalic Carnage: Xenosapien

30/07/07 || The Duff

Cephalic Carnage’s classic material has always escaped me, but the band’s 2004 release “Anomalies” didn’t fail to grab me by the throat the first couple of months I had it. Unfortunately, with time, the album simply lost its appeal, as I found myself continuously skipping over it and siding with my regulars when it came to getting my death/grindcore fix. This band’s latest, “Xenosapien”, is likely to suffer the same fate, much to my dismay – I really want to dig the hell out of these guys; unfortunately, as much as their concoction of death, grind, mathcore, stoner and Mr. Bungle may totally wreak carnage upon my cephalous, this isn’t one of the more new-age acts that is going to make me steer ship away from the greats.

Upon hearing “Endless Cycle of Violence”, this album became something seriously eagerly anticipated; I couldn’t stop listening to that track, and was hoping for more of the same – tracks that were straightforward, yet completely obliterating. It was on the strength of this one track (ignoring the somewhat lacklustre “Touched by an Angel” posted up on the Relapse site) that I bought the album – what I got with the rest was less of the regular death metal vibe and more of the expected Cephalic Carnage formula as that experienced on their previous offering – a lot of doomy riffs and death metal breakdowns mixed in with technical wizardry/musical madness, and overall very few moments comprising the unmerciful hyper-grind that may once have been the bulk of their sound.

What really makes it tough to not appreciate this more is that Cephalic Carnage have clearly learned from their mistakes; whatever flaws “Anomalies” may have had (too much math influence, as well as a couple of metalcore moments that, although performed in a tongue-in-cheek manner, just didn’t belong), the band has worked on the criticism received from (most likely) fans and tailored an album much more death metal oriented and as such far less zaney just for the sake of it (the wacky moments sure do have their place, and impressively avoid being masturbatory regardless of how demanding some of the parts must be to perform); as such, we get a band that is clearly playing to nothing but its strengths, and an album that is through and through a strong effort.

I feel as though, after 10 or so listens, I’ve taken in everything I can from this effort; then again, every time I choose to listen to “Xenosapien”, I’m guaranteed a satisfying experience. This here is therefore nothing short of a fucken great album, but I do question whether or not I won’t sell it some months down the line. For the moment, I’m inclining towards hanging on to the thing, as it does surpass “Anomalies” in many ways; on the other hand, I just don’t know how many times I’m likely to return to “Xenosapien” – the only reason for me to do so is for the track “Endless Cycle of Violence”. If all the songs were as strong as the opener, then this for me would be an outstanding release; instead, Cephalic Carnage have provided something that is a little regular by their own standards, yet as such something that doesn’t really have any flaws.

8 “sexy albums that just don’t do it for me no more” out of 10.

Information
Released: 2007
Label: Relapse
Website: www.cephaliccarnage.net
Band
Lenzig Leal: vocals
Steve Goldberg: guitars
Zac Joe: guitars
Jawsh Mullen: bass
John Merryman: drums

Tracklist
01. Endless Cycle Of Violence
02. Divination And Volition
03. Molting
04. Touched By An Angel
05. Vaporized
06. Heptarchy
07. Global Overhaul Device
08. Let Them Hate So Long As They Fear
09. Omega Point
10. Megacosm Of The Aquaphobics
11. Ov Vicissitude
12. Untitled

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