Carnage

Carnage - Dark Recollections
Earache, 2000
Genre: Death Metal

Dark Recollections: 1990
1. Dark Recollections
2. Torn Apart
3. Blasphemies of the Flesh
4. Infestation of Evil
5. Gentle Exhuming
6. Deranged from Blood
7. Malignant Epitaph
8. Self Dissection
9. Death Evocation
10. Outro
The Day Man Lost: 1989
11. Crime Against Humanity
12. Aftermath
13. The Day Man Lost
The Day Man Lost (Rough Mix)
14. Crime Against Humanity
15. Aftermath
16. The Day Man Lost
Infestation of Evil: 1989
17. Torn Apart
18. Infestation of Evil


Carnage really changed their methods from their demo days with the release of “Dark Recollections”. Luckily on this re-release we get to hear what their earlier material sounded like, so you can hear the huge change that went over the band. The demo material is practically blatant Carcass worship and I’m not surprised this earned Michael Amott a spot in the future of Carcass.

Despite all this I say “Dark Recollections” is a lot more influenced by the likes of Entombed and Dismember. In fact if you basically blended those two bands sounds together, you’d have Carnage. Carnage is a lot more straight forward than both bands, but who out of the three is heavier could probably be argued pretty well. I think sometimes Carnage can be a bit heavier sounding, but the guitar tone is basically the same as the other two bands.

Obviously, I got this Carnage album after I had become quite familiar with Dismember and I have to say it’s interesting to hear Karki do a much more straight forward Death Metal vocal tone. In Dismember he has more of a guttural yell similar to what Petrov has in Entombed, but on here it’s much more guttural and deeper. However, at times he does use that kind of yelling technique like on “Deranged from Blood”, but the guttural tones are probably more derived from their earlier grind days.

This reissue is a great deal for anyone that’s just getting into Carnage or for a long time collector because it comes coupled with the full length and demo material! Looking back in history Carnage is one of those original super groups before any of the members played in any of their more well known bands. I think Earache put together a good product and add incentive to those who may already have the original album.

Carnage is definitely one of those Classic Death Metal bands that should get a lot more recognition. Unfortunately since Carnage broke up after one album, I think they got lost in history next to the bigger names like Entombed, Dismember, and Unleashed. However, you can’t deny that back then they were on the same playing field as those more well known bands. Fans of that Swedish Death Metal sound will definitely not be disappointed with what Carnage put out for us all to hear!