From Wiesenttal, Bavaria TERMINAL CARNAGE released their debut album entitled "The Sickening Rebirth" on February 28 2021 through Great Dane Records. Stefan Walker affiliates with the band MOSHERIE & Marcus Zillig affiliates with bands ALL LEFT DROWNING & ERASER. "Future Shock" (intro) the first album track introduction opens with a bass and distorted guitar pedal with lyrics narrating a world disaster–most of which is through the evils of technology.

"Involuntary Organ Donor" - the second album track opens with a myriad of rhythmic complexities - there is so much!  We've entered the Garden of Persephone (the Prize Wife of Hades & the abducted daughter of Ceres). I feel a six count is easiest to match the pulse of the guitar; yet this is nice for a full head thrash to the mosh of a slow two beat feel - with accents on one & four (One two-three Four five-six). Distorted diatonic motives & countermotives ascend & descend to accentuate this rhythmic pulse along the guitar neck like clingy ivy fraught with thorns. The pulse ceases just after one minute for spoken vocal tracks. Shortly after resuming to the main body of riffs, guitar leads both embellish & develop these short pithy bickering phrases into pulsating blisters: yes folks we are in a garden of black roses with thorny stalks, a garden that has been masterfully planned & beautifully created. Lie back on your pointy bed of nails and enjoy.

"The Sickening Rebirth" - the third album track opens with a pre-recorded warning siren as the main guitar theme is heard.  Perhaps the most melodic song on the album, this is still old school death metal–and just before reaching two minutes the song ferocity grows in both heaviness and intensity.  The guitar partially mutes to accentuate the rhythm yet still allows for the distorted strings to sustain that ferociously cutting sound–beautiful. Markus Zillig ornaments this demonic flourish between the floor toms and the bass drum.

"Dead Mass (The Doom Of Mankind)" - the fourth album track begins slowly and at about one minute - the tempo and aggression increases with a faster accentuated melodic rhythm on the guitar.  The accentuated melodic rhythm carried by the guitar is not only a lick but serves as a  basis for sudden momentary flourishes, sometimes played over a drum fill–sometimes played in lieu of one. Polyrhythmic flourishes wrought with intervallic leaps serve like flames in a hearth fire forever reaching to latch and catch to greater host.

"Chaos The New World Order" - the sixth album track opens slowly; guitars are detuned to the two whole steps to the low C; for the vocal track Stefan Walker's voice is spoken in rhythmic pitch (low!!!).  (The lowest note in the operatic repertoire is a low D, and is heard amidst MOZART'S "Marriage of Figaro" - one whole step above the pedal for this tune and the pitch to which Stefan Walker descends for this tune.)  Since I have no evidence that he's used electronics to reach this note, let's allow the aura of wonder to embellish the idea that as a Death Metal musician, Stefan Walker is of a different breed. TERMINAL CARNAGE is casting some hellish bliss for us anyway.

"Least Evil" - the seventh album track opens with a slow melodic groove. For momentary bouts,  the speed of the rhythm guitar parallels that of the rolling double bass drum.  Moments of cutting accents in the thirty seconds following the two minute mark convey a rhythmic counterpoint that chops the subdivided beat–like the physical derailment of a moving train by knocking it with a sledge hammer.  There is subtle delicacy hidden within these death metal hymns.

"Years Of Demise" - the eighth album track opens with quiet bass undertones and by ten seconds, ferociously distorted rhythm guitars enter for a progression that is slow & heavy.
Drums enter with a slow & steady beat that progressively intensifies with poignant intensities of the song; and by one minute twenty seconds, double bass drums lay a steady legato yet solid foundation for a death metal groove with the string section & vocals. At two minutes "all hell breaks loose" as rhythm guitars & bass maintain a moderate mosh; while guitar leads pique like malignant spirits just broken through hell's gate–I'm loving this.

"Obituary After Death" - the ninth and final album track opens with a Solemn March. Ba-da Bum-Bum-Bah; Ba-da Bum-Bum-Bah; Ba-da Bum-Bum-Bah; Ba-da Bum-Bum-Bah is heard  between floor tom and snare as alternate guitar tracks slowly crescendo;  a beautiful clash that opens a cutting rhythmic counterpoint between the sixteenth note anacrusis that recurs as the percussive march pattern repeats–that slowly transfers to a metallic mosh of straight eight notes, against the volume increase; Markus Zillig transfers to standard beat - for a perfect Death Metal rhythmic mosh to begin.  I favor some song introductions - "Darkness Descends" by DARK ANGEL; "Seasons of the Abyss" by SLAYER. "Obituary After Death" is like a metaphorical bookmark - a heavy laden shovel to open a graveyard portal for the undead - "Under a juniper-tree the bones sang, scattered and shining (T. S. ELIOT)" for skeletal remains to mosh-dance amidst the wind.

I'd absolutely love to hear more death metal moshes; I smiled when hearing the march transfer to a mosh as "Obituary After Death" began.