There’s a blurb on the back of my promo copy of the Carnal Forge
\nrelease
\nPlease . . . Die!<\/i> that begins with these sentences below.
\nUsually, I don’t quote presskit verbiage because the purpose of a
\npresskit is simply to get me, the reviewer, excited about a given
\nrelease. I’ve gotten plenty of releases that were described as
\n“breakthrough” and “most awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping” in the
\npresskit, only to really suck, to consider myself jaded. That said,
\nconsider these sentences:<\/p>\n
“There’s no need to wait any longer for the thrash revival to
\noccur – it’s upon us, and in full force. Why wait around for the
\nold heroes of yesterday to rise from their rocking chairs and
\nreunite, and why have their vintage overshadowed by the nagging
\nfeeling that they were much better Back in the Day? Older generals
\nmayhave formulated the original battle plans, but it’s youth that
\nalways leads the charge.”<\/p>\n
Yeah, right. This release is going to blow my mind.<\/p>\n
So I looked at the song titles. “Butchered, Slaughtered,
\nStrangled, Hanged,” “Hand of Doom” and “Totalitarian Torture” are
\nthree of the first four song titles. Okay, these guys from Sweden
\nlook serious, per their press picture. Plenty of tattoos and long
\nhair.<\/p>\n
Put the CD in.<\/p>\n
Thrash is back baby and it likes it hard, fast, and furious. It
\ndoesn’t want a quickie, it wants an orgasm that lasts from sunset
\nto sunrise and back. Carnal Forge deliver the goods with this
\nrelease. “B S S H” starts the CD out – a heart monitor going
\nflatline – and then the onslaught begins. Vocalist Jonas Kjellgren
\nis torqued way tight as he unleashes his intense lyrics. Guitarists
\nJari Kuusisto and Petri Kuusisto construct guitar riffs and bassist
\nLars Linden and drummer Stefan Westerberg nail the lower register
\ndown with precision. Westerberg is fast and precise.<\/p>\n
But given the presskit boasting, how does it compare to an “old
\nhero” release? It’d be too easy to judge early Metallica, Slayer,
\nAnthrax, and Megadeth releases as being “good for their day, but .
\n. . you know,
\nKill ‘Em All<\/i> is nearly 20 years old. The presskit is right.”
\nAnd the presskit
\nis<\/i> right. This release is impressive. Rather than compare
\nthe release to the Four That Wrote the Book of Thash, let’s look at
\nwhat is different. First of all, this CD doesn’t have a single
\nstandout track. There’s not a “Whiplash” or “Lucretia” (my favorite
\n‘deth song on
\nRust In Peace<\/i>) or “War Ensemble” or “Indians” – – thrash
\nclassics that stand out.<\/p>\n
Rather the entire CD is song after song of blistering force.
\nSecond, at the same time that the songs all stand out, there is a
\nlack of compassion that you might expect from Anthrax’s “Indians.”
\nThere’s no “we’re sorry for the situation” or any remorse. Hell,
\nthere’s a song called “Please . . . Die” and another called
\n“Welcome To Your Funeral.” Third, and finally, the songs are
\nshorter in length. When I think of thrash, I think of a song like
\n“Master of Puppets” that has a theme, a variation of the theme, a
\nreturn to the theme, a lead, and a closing section. These songs
\nthat Carnal Forge have put together are more sonic blasts. Sure,
\nthere’s verse\/chorus\/verse structures (as with almost all songs)
\nbut a CF song blasts so long and hard that you lose the identity of
\ndifferent sections.<\/p>\n
Carnal Forge, according to their presskit, have two other CDs
\navailable. I am on my way now to look for them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":26130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6721],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-37345","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-carnal-forge","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37345"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37345"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}