There is absolutely nothing wrong with The Diseased and the Poisoned, sophomore effort from Carnifex (derived from the olde English word for ‘Executioner’). In fact, its arguably one of the better deathcore releases of the year-up there with Whitechapel’s This Is Exile-and therein lies the problem. The Diseased and the Poisoned and This Is Exile were released in two weeks of each other, and are virtually the same record, and unfortunately I reviewed This Is Exile first. When I first loaded both albums into my Ipod, I had to check which band it was when either one played.
Still, for a high profile, Zeuss produced release (who mixed This Is Exile, adding the similarity) on Victory Records, The Diseased and the Poisoned is an upper echelon, sturdy bitch of a deathcore effort plying every nuance of the genre with aplomb. Of course the focus in on mountainous breakdowns, of which there are plenty (“The Diseased and the Poisoned”, “In Coalesce with Filth and Faith”, “Among Grim Shadows”) -and all of them are rumble-tastic, earthmoving moments you’d expect from such an act.
The moments in between, like most of their peers are a mix of semi grind, death metal and kinda melodic slicing (“Sadistic Embrace”‘ “Aortic Dissection”), and this is where I’d have to give the nod to Whitechapel, but as you can also see, Carnifex also reside in the more serious, death metal side of things when it comes to lyrics. Like Whitechapel, Carnifex are pretty much to the point and focused on blunt force trauma, lacking the more creative flourishes of say A Thousand Time Repent, Fate or Veil of Maya, but that’s what you expect and want with a band like Carnifex, and they are more than willing to bash your head in.
Like Whitechapel, Carnifex have improved an tightened from their debut (2007 Dead In Her Arms, released on Uprising Records) and maneuvered their way into the upper hierarchy of saturated genre and considering the amount of bands plying this styles, that’s no mean feat. But also like Whitechapel, if you simply hate this form of wanna be death metal for kids, The Diseased and the Poisoned won’t convert you, but for fans of this stuff, this is yet another cream of the crop.
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you gotta see carnifex live shits crazy. i took my bro to see em and the mosh was intense. band will go down in history man for sure. oh ya review the new ATB – Rareform which is f*cking awesome as hell.
on Jul 26th, 2008 at 16:04I can’t really get into Carnifex at all. They sound, just generic in my opinion.
I understand the comparison to the new whitechapel in terms of production, but I think it stops there.
I would say Whitechapel, is superior…but I couldn’t ever get anything from this band.
I would agree though, that it is getting harder and harder to find something good in the deathcore genre…I need to find other venues of heavy haha. :/
on Jul 30th, 2008 at 08:16One of the best DC bands out there. I haven’t checked out the WhiteChaple yet but Im looking forward to that. The new Carnifex album is heavy as hell and I do enjoy it.
on Jul 31st, 2008 at 11:44I like this record but I see where Erik is coming from. I got the new Whitechape (came while I was away) so I can FINALLY give it a listen.
Swamp, new ATB sounds good, but, in the meantime, a band I recommend, Begging for incest (awful awful name, but great music).
on Aug 1st, 2008 at 15:51If you cant get into carnifex than you need to listen to hell chose me or entombed monarch i have every album they have ever put out and the only band in my eyes that will ever top them is cannibal corpse
on Mar 26th, 2011 at 21:00