Artist: Carniwhore
Title: Rising Up
Type: 7” vinyl
Label: Duplicate Records

Hasn’t technology come a long way? Fifteen years ago when I was tearing my hear out over another tape getting chewed up beyond repair I’d have never thought for a second I could some day have my entire music collection stored on a hard drive. Never mind the viral threats, that a slight glitch could wipe out that collection in a second, or the fact that I bloody well don’t want a computer to replace every commodity that sits proudly today on a shelf. Technological advancements mean that when I bought my new stereo it was not an affordable option to get one with a record player attached (seems they are not far off obsolete now), and yet here we are in 2010 and there are still bands out there who insist, usually for the romanticised nostalgic ideals, on releasing music on vinyl. In all fairness, good on them! Good on them for sticking two fingers up at today’s throwaway MP3 culture, where the average teenager doesn’t understand the concept of a “great album” merely a collection of random songs.

So how does the music stand up on this four-track 7” vinyl from Norwegian duo Carniwhore? Well just as you’d expect from a couple of technophobes this is primitive as fuck. Instantly ‘Rising Up’ comes clawing and clattering out of the speakers with a drum sound that really sounds like it was recorded in a dustbin. The guitars prance over the top but soon speed up. In fact, at just over 12 minutes speed is very much the name of the game here and you can forget sprawling epics, this is about simplistic blackened thrash metal. The guitars have that sharp, cutting edge that sounds rough and rusty as an old well-worn razor. There’s even a hint of a solo on ‘Morbid Crucifixion’ that writhes wirily in the mix; it’s clumsy but it does have a certain punkish charm. This track actually starts out with an aggressive, speed-hungry guitar repetition that reminds me very much of the thrashy, premature Metallica track ‘Whiplash’ while the vocals have a nice raspy bark to the delivery. The menacing laugh mid-way is a nice touch too and fits in with the overall sinister and hate-fuelled tone of the EP.

There’s little more that can be said; 12 minutes of pure primitive blackened thrash that will get the head banging and the beer drinking thrashers doing what they do best. If you enjoy the sounds of Aura Noir, Nifelheim and early Sodom then you’ll want to hear this now.

http://www.myspace.com/thrashcarniwhore

Luci Herbert

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