Artist: Hackneyed
Title: Carnival Cadavre
Type: Album
Label: Lifeforce Records

I remember hearing good things about this German band when they first emerged, they were and are still very young, they proved to be great live performers too when they supported Nile, Grave and Krisiun a while back, so this is a big name in that respect, but are they able to provide a killer album to match the previous hype with album number three? Hmm, I am certainly not convinced! Compressed guitars, pig-squeals and slow-mo chugga chugga do the chicken dance tempos really entice monotonous feelings. In some areas I hear elements of Kataklysm, and in others Annotations of an Autopsy, with their deathcore leanings, and when I mean their leanings, I mean there is a lot of “core” here. All the commercial attributes, down the vocals, the slam riffs and big breakdowns are here, but, it is slow and laborious in the majority.

You have to wait until track 8, ‘Magic Malignancy’ for the speed to increase and for the album to finally perk up from the doldrums of the myspace band generation, you now have a breath of hope, a chance the let loose before you grow old. ‘Cure the Obscene’ takes some Arch Enemy pointers with the melodic guitar toned melody, this is in fact one of the defining moments of the release, this shows character, rather than following the pack of “core” teamsters which is a real shame. No matter how good you can play, no matter how fast or hard the triggers hit the kick drum, if the songs don’t have any substance then you’re going to get into trouble and become complacent. This album has plenty of technical ability, it’s just a little dull and slow when it comes to the overall package or product.

http://www.hackneyed.de

Paul Maddison

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