Search - Cephalic Carnage :: Halls of Amenti

Mind Boggling!!....

Xenosapien | Altered States of America | 09/20/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"MotherTrucker... Cephalic Carnage should slow things down more often! This gem is a one-track wonder that throws down a 19-minute epic of sheer and total annihilating doom! The lengthy piece begins sounding not unlike Black Sabbath (with far more brutal vocals, of course): Slow, plodding, destructive... f***ing great stuff. About seven minutes in they start to spice things up with some acoustic guitars in the background, dissonant chord progressions, and tons of vocal layering: Nasty low growls, scathing high screams, singing, the works. A few minutes later things get heavier and generally more aggressive with thick palm muting and the style of writing you'd be more likely to expect when the "doom" tag starts getting thrown around - but I don't mean that in a generic way. Shortly thereafter things get slightly faster and more "intricate" by comparison, especially as far as the percussion goes - and just past 13 minutes they get wacky with mostly bass and drums, spoken vocals, and bizarre spurts of semi-distorted guitars that eventually start to take hold in full force. The next thing you know they're dropping some southern tinged riffing, and what would a good doom song be without at least one of those token runs? Towards the end they even include electronic noise textures that start bubbling up in the distance, adding in yet another unexpected twist. Damn nice. The production on this thing is awesome. I might argue that this is the best Cephalic Carnage has ever sounded. Everything is clear and heavy as hell, there's just the right amount of definition for each instrument, etc. At times when the vocals reach their most extreme it sounds like there's too much distortion going on overall, causing some slight peaking of the levels, but it's barely noticeable in headphones and it doesn't bother me. The recording here definitely has a little bit of an edge over their full-lengths. I hope they keep this general sound intact for future efforts. The layout is pretty damn wild with this one. There's no booklet, just a clear sticker on the front of the jewel case and some printing over a clear CD, so there's a lot of layering. The sticker on the front has a portion of the Cephalic Carnage logo on it in black, the art on top of the CD has a triangle and a baby in the fetal position with some obscure textures around it, and underneath the CD tray are more obscure textures in a similar color scheme. The printing on top of the CD is a little bit blurry so it's hard to make out what's going on, but the three layers of overlapping imagery look pretty slick together. None of the lyrics are included, just a brief thanks list. The only other text is really just the band name and the title of the CD. I wish they had thrown the lyrics in somehow, but oh well. F**k it. This is probably the best song I've ever heard from Cephalic Carnage. If you can handle the thought of the band playing slower and with less complexity than their usual fare, this is essential."

BLOODY INCREDIBLE

Xenosapien | 08/15/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is an amazing C/C track. If you haven't heard cephalic's other stuff yet, get those first. This is one long track that you really need to be a hardcore C/C fan to appreciate. It is much slower and lighter than their other stuff... it still has its' heaviness/speed in parts but it is more ambient. Picture this: Cephalic Carnage trying to do an album that Release would put out. It isn't a bunch of noise but rather an experimental mellow grind album. Confusing huh? That's C/C for you. You never know what to expect except that it will thrill you every second of the way!! If you already love everything they do BUY THIS CD. If you don't like it, put it on the shelf for a week and then listen again. It grows on you and eventually takes you over completely."