No, not that CARNIFEX. This is a band of the same name from Finland and an extremely underground ensemble that were active from 1989 - 1993. No actual new material has been released in 25 years; this album is simply a collection of demos from their active years. There is not a lot of available information about the band. They were never signed, although this remastered collection is being released through Xtreem Music, and they released two demos and a split while they were still around; the second demo is extremely hard to come by, as it was mostly only sent to labels. The band does not have much of an online following either: the only online source for their music is one recording of their 1991 demo on YouTube (a link will be provided at the bottom).

I'll preface my analysis by saying this: the 1993 tracks are just infinitely better than the 1991 tracks. This compilation does a great job of showing the band's evolution from their first release to their last. The '93 songs are full of super melodic, well-developed riffs, and some short but fun guitar solos. To be honest, they could just re-release the 1993 demo, re-mixed and re-mastered, and it would be an immediate hit among fans of old-school death metal. It's saddening that the band split up before their potential was fully realized; I think they were really on their way to something special that hinted at the direction death metal as a genre would take. If you have the option of getting your hands on that rare 1993 demo, I urge you to DO IT!

The "Intro" is 52 seconds of dissonant, legato slides underneath what sounds like animal snarls, nothing too out-of-the-ordinary for underground 90's Finnish death metal. "Pathological Rites" opens with a bass tone that is so distorted it's almost disturbing. A much less painful guitar tone comes in with the main riff, but with that constant buzzy, super static-y sound underneath, it's honestly distracting from the song itself and takes away from it. If something in the mix distracts from the song, it should be changed. That said, the song stylistically really adheres to this specific era of blackened death metal. The rest of the mix does leave a lot to be desired: it's overall very overdistorted, the drums are very far back in the mix, and there is an insane amount of reverb on the vocals. But the mix also stylistically suits this era of this genre, so you really have to take it for what it is.

"Disturbed One" opens with a catchier riff, and the buzzing bass tone is gone. The song itself is recorded a little sloppily - the guitars, drums, bass aren't super in-sync with each other. The vocals are proving to be versatile, in the last two songs going from lower-end brutal vocals to shrieking highs. Some of the riffs are fun, with the song closing out with a simple but catchy chugging riff. "Purify Thy Souls" opens with an unexpectedly upfront, clicky kick drum that sounds very strange soloed. Once the rest of the riff drops it's much less disconcerting. Much of the song is taken over by a very black-metal tremolo-picked riff. "Necrophobia" really bring up the energy, blazing in with more tremolo-picking and some solid blast beats. The song doesn't do much to progress - there's no development in the riffs, but overall it's fun, high-energy blackened death metal, although it doesn't need to be six minutes long with the lack of development.

"Aberration Into My Subconscious" is another comfortably old-school black metal track, from the super crunchy guitar tones, the immense amount of reverb on the vocals, and the iffy mix. "Left Behind", the first track from the split, has more of a MORBID ANGEL feel to it - a little less black metal, a little more old-school death metal. "Release From Slavery" is also much more old-school death metal, and it's a nice change-up from the songs from the '91 Demo. It's very reminiscent of early MORBID ANGEL, and I'm all about it. The better production exhibits the change and evolution of the band as well. This song is the best on the album so far - it's just good, clean, old-fashioned death metal, and I'm really hoping the songs from the '93 Demo are more along these lines. Unexpected synth strings enter in the last minute of the song. . . and I think maybe a lead guitar line would have been much more suitable stylistically.

"Why?", the first song from the '93 Demo, almost sounds like a completely different band than what you hear from the '91 Split and the '91 Demo. The band changes so much from release-to-release: the style, the production, the vocal styles. I will say, the songs on the '93 Demo are more structurally interesting, and there is a lot more development of riffs. The vocals are much less in the high-end; they're more of a super raspy mid-range style. The song is this big blaze of energy from start to finish. To be honest, the guitar tones on the '91 Split were preferable to the tones on the '93 Demo; here, the guitars are extremely static-y - very noisy and crunchy, and I wish there was more clarity to them. The drum mix improves exponentially from release-to-release as well. They're not nearly as far back in the mix on this demo, and the kick is still clicky but has more body to it. "Salvation = Suffocation" has a very unexpected, groovy riff in the beginning before it goes back into relentless old-school energy. I love when a band can surprise me, and that groovy, almost classic rock-style riff was stylistically completely different from the rest of the album. The section that enter just before the second minute has this pure thrashy rage to it that develops further into this really great brutal death metal sound. The vocals really impress me on this track: they get super low with even some guttural hints at times, and it's a great change-up from the high shrieks and mid-range rasp that was present on the other two releases.

"Resurrection" further exemplifies the much more melodic take the band took on the '93 Demo. The scratchy guitar tones take away from the melody at time, but there are some really gorgeous, aurally pleasing sections in this song. The vocals are really impressing me on this last release: on this track, they range from the brutal low-range sound from the last track to an ungodly, demonic screech that I've never heard from a human being. And there's a guitar solo in this song! It's super melodic, and another great surprise. I think having the three releases on this album one after the other is a smart way of exemplifying the vast evolution this band made before calling it quits. From the sound of the '93 tracks, I would have really liked to hear a full-length release from these guys. "Spiritual Void" continues the sudden trend of melodic riffs with these heart-wrenching intervals. It goes straight into pure thrash at 1:11, minus the purely old-school brutal death metal vocals. Another unexpected guitar solo shows up at 1:42. The solos have been super melodic, they develop nicely, and, while not super technical, are very clean, and it makes me wish, again, that this band had put out a full-length album. These '93 songs are just lightyears ahead of the first demo - it's really a shame that we never got the chance to see these guys' full potential realized, because those songs from the last demo made me a fan.

I'm rating this album purely from the songs off of the '93 demo - these three releases are so unbelievably different from each other, it sounds like a completely different band on each one.