Belgium death metal band CARNATION released "Chapel of Abhorrence" on August 17th, 2018 via Season of Mist Records. Formed in 2013, CARNATION released their first album "Cemetery of the Insane" in 2015 and released a live E.P. prior to signing with Season of Mist. Influenced by old school 90's death metal, as most are and should be, CARNATION do a pretty good job at making it concrete who influenced them. Their sound is EQ'd similar to GRAVE and DISMEMBER. What sets them apart is that they are not mirroring or attempting to recreate what has already been done. They took the pieces and techniques they liked from their influences and expanded on them. CARNATION demonstrate good musical evolution. Knowing that you are an extension of a growing base.

While the first half of "Chapel of Abhorrence" and the second half have a noticeable difference likely due to the age of the material, a couple of tracks appear on the live E.P., there is no shortage of aspects that span the entire genre and sub-genre of death metal. "Sermon of the Dead" has a slower tempo. In its transitions, a black metal riff with pitch bends and artificial harmonics sustained as well as fast tremolo picking. Abruptly the song has a couple of quick stabs that open the gates for some pit friendly face bashing grooves. If that isn't your thing, give it a second, a very technical build then leads the way for rapid machine gun fire blasting. Considering CARNATION is a relatively new band they don't sound like it all. Their song structures are somewhat complicated. They aren't anything you can just throw together. These intricate changes have to be timed just right, and I'm sure it took a lot of time to perfect it.

"Fathomless Deaths" has verses that are catchy and easy to digest while still proving to be thick, heavy, and crunchier than stale toast. The center portion of the track has an 80's extreme metal touch as single chords are allowed to ring and sustain fading in volume organically. This provides enough time to swing your arm high in the air following the intense unified strum while a single cymbal keeps time. The vocals, very reminiscent of GRAVE's "You'll Never See." Deep, wet throat audible growls. Ending " Chapel of Abhorrence" is "Power Trip." Opening with a SLAYER tempo and style guitar riff. The verse tempo resembles JUNGLE ROT. Medium paced tight chugging on a few different notes for the first half and for the second the drummer is the only one who changes by increasing the speed and ending the rep with an open hat. Later in the track, the drummer leads with a rolling double kick while the snare and cymbal work maintains the slower muddy tempo of the guitar riff.

There are melodic riffs that are played more like 80's metal rather than the current reason, making an emotive vibe. If you know your stuff you will pick up on a lot of metal elements from speed metal, black metal, death metal, and whatever NUCLEAR ASSAULT was considered. This is all done in a very tasteful way that blends well. Perhaps it's the militant style song structure and precision that makes it great. Let's face it, 2018 is a busy year for this genre. Some major players are making strong comebacks, kind of shadowing any new bands. It is doing one thing, ensuring that if you plan on releasing an album this year, it better be damn good. Competition is fierce. CARNATION is one of those bands that are well worth making an extra buck to make sure "Chapel of Abhorrence" is in your cart.