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Vomitory: Carnage euphoria

23/04/09 || Lord K Philipson

I don’t write as much as I used to when it comes to reviews for this site. Like it fucken matters. It is MY site. Mine, mine, MINE!!! I prefer to give the shit we get sent album-wise to the feeble mortals on staff to review since I’m definitely too occupied being a bum/rockstar. Sometimes I have to skip my daily duties though and devote myself to some music that just deserve the superior writings of The Lord (it’s very tr00 to write about oneself in third person by the way).

Anyways… This is one of those times.

It always cracks me right the fuck up when I write “Vomitory” on the Internet and get suggestions for what I really wanna write since “Vomitory” obviously isn’t a real word in some parts of the English language… Let’s see here, what suggestions I get; “dormitory”, “vomit”, “monitory” and finally “auditory” are my options… I don’t know, but it feels like I should stick to the more death metal ringing word “vomitory” when referring to the band at hand, huh? For people who don’t know me it might look like I am completely new to this Swedish band who have been delivering top notch death metal for 20 fucken years now…

On the fucken contrary. With sugar on top. And on the sides.

For those who don’t know… I am probably more familiar with this band than their die-hard fans are seeing drummer extra-ordinaire Tobben and I are very, very close friends. No, we are not a couple but if he was a chick I’d marry him. I have also helped them out on a few tours when old guitarist Uffe quit and they were in dire need of some assistance guitar-wise. And as if that wasn’t enough I have been involved with helping them out with a few song titles on their excellent “Terrorize, brutalize, sodomize” piece that was released a few years ago. That’s not all though – who do you think actually came up with the title of the album at hand? That’s right, your fave guy and idol – and I’m not talking about Charles Bronson. So, I take a lot of pride in this band and their recordings and I really appreciate the fact that I can try to help them out with whatever, whenever I can. And why shouldn’t I take great pride in it? How many people have the fucken privilege to be able to work with a band you consider one of the best in the whole fucken world of death metal and brutality? That’s right, not many. How many fucken people are so lucky they get to hear new material from one of your absolute fave bands in its demo form before they record the actual album? That’s right, not too fucken many.

That means you lose and I win.

Is it hard to write about a band you have a close personal connection to? Not at fucken all. These kinda reviews write themselves, you know. Lemme just state, for lesser humans, like Mike “The Pogg” Poggione and his likes (it’s been far too long since we mocked that asshole) that a review doesn’t actually write itself, it’s just a figure of speech. It feels like I wrote an essay just now without even scratching the surface of this album, and I think I just did. So, how to continue?

Easy – the songs.

I will probably say alot of things in this coverage that I said in my review of “TBS” (short for “Terrorize, Brutalize, Sodomize”), and it’s not too weird if that happens since we are talking Vomitory/Auditory/Dormitory here, you know. I didn’t expect these guys to pull a 180 on their well-known death metal style so what we are talking about is first class annihilation from the fucken masters of the fucken craft. There are very few bands who manage to sound hungry and consistent album after album. Vomitory is one of those bands, for sure. They know how they are supposed to sound, just like Nina Hartley knew cock back in the day (the old ho prolly still can tell a cock from a chair when I think about it).

You won’t get any surprises with these guys and fuck knows I don’t want any. Surprise me on Christmas, surprise me on my birthday – but leave the fucken surprises out of my fucken Vomitory or I’ll skull-fuck you with a pool table. And that’s exactly what they do. They give fuck-all about surprises and just hand out the best fucken death metal they can. 90 percent of the time they absolutely succeed at it too, making me smile like a muthafucker in the process.

“TBS” had a few weak tracks (unfortunately the worst one was written by new-guy-back-then, Peter, and I guess they just let him have a tune or two in there to kinda get in the game – fuck do I know) that lowered the overall impression just a tad for me. And when I say “lowered” it’s like going down from a 9 to an 8,5 when it comes to the score for the album. That gives you an idea as for how fucken terrific Vormauditory are. How is it with “Carnage Euphoria” then? How do the material hold up this time around?

Well…

For one, Peter’s songs are fucken ace on “Carnage Euphoria” (you can check who wrote what when you BUY, yes – buy, the album and have the booklet in front of you) and he’s sure grown into the Vomitory fold (with a watching eye from main composer Tobben, I’m sure) with flying colors. As a whole it’s all killer material, it’s just that a few tracks aren’t as awesome as the best tracks, if you get my point. But it matters fucken little since Vomitory piss on most other bands when they are in their prime, and they are, as mentioned, just that about 90% of the time.

What first struck me like a 7000 foot concrete dildo (with teeth, chains and rabies) in the face when I heard “TBS” was the production, which was fantastic. So making the decision to return to Leon Studios for “Carnage Euphoria” was obviously a no-brainer. There’s something missing in this production though that “TBS” had: the absolutely killer sound of the bass. Sure, it’s there but it’s not half as fucken dominating as it was on “TBS”, and that’s a shame coz we all know how I love me some loud bass.

Besides that little complaint the overall sound is perhaps more powerful on this one (though I prefer the sound on “TBS” thanx to the bass), displaying a fucken excellent drum sound together with crushing guitars. Maybe Erik’s ace vocals should have been a little lower in the mix (this is just personal taste, fuck you very much) and that was actually something I thought of the very first time I listened to this blasting piece of plastic. See, I’m nit-picking now. Simply becoz honesty is my middle name and Vomitory is my game. And the small fact that I really have to try hard to find something to complain about.

And the carnage rages on…

I don’t think I have heard so many (small) Slayer-tribute riffs on a Vomitory album before (f.e listen to the break in “Serpents” around 1:25). That is cool. There’s a fine line between coming across like a fucken idiot when you do shit like that and coming across as a fucken excellent band showing some of their roots. Vomitory is naturally in the latter category. They always had bits and pieces that showed their influences (Bolt Thrower, Napalm Death, the mentioned Slayer and a few others) and it’ll forever be a great part of their sound.

Or it wouldn’t be the Vomitory I respect and absolutely love.

When I, as one of the very, very few (though probably the most deserving one) got this album months before its release date I told Tobben that I looked forward to lie down and completely absorb it before making a statement to him about it. I know he values my opinion so this is important business to me. I have listened to “Carnage Euphoria” multiple times in various situations. I’ve been taking long baths with it accompanying me on a small CD-player. I’ve had it in my iPod while going to work, and the most important one: I have played it loud and low on my fantastic sound system in The Dungeon. All of this just to get as many spectrum’s as possible covered for it since it all sounds different soundwise going through an album this way – which means you get different impressions about it and discover new things all the time. This is not a process I use for all bands I have to review, that’s for fucken sure. But if you really wanna dissect a recording, this is the way to do it and in the end it pays off.

So, time to wrap shit up.

“Carnage Euphoria” is not as “direct” or “striking” with the first listening session as “Primal Massacre” or “Terrorize, Brutalize, Sodomize” were, but I have a feeling it will be a grower. I miss a few more complete hit tunes like “Chaos fury”, “Primal massacre”, “The corpsegrinder experience”, “Gore apocalypse” or “Eternal trail of corpses” to name but a few, but opener “The carnages rages on” (among others) is bound to be a new live favorite for me when I see these guys on stage again.

Is this the best effort from Vomitory ever? I don’t think so, “Blood rapture” still stands as my fave album from these guys, but “Carnage Euphoria” is in the same world as anything else they have released after that masterpiece – a world where completely awesome death metal is King and Vomitory are his most bloodthirsty and vicious army. An army that always end up victorious in battle.

Fuck off now, thank you. I have to go back to being a bum/rockstar.

8,5

Information
Released: 2009
Label: Metal Blade
Website: www.vomitory.net
Band
Erik Rundqvist: vocals, bass
Ubbe Gustafsson: guitars
Peter Östlund: guitars
Tobias Gustafsson: drums

Tracklist
01. The Carnage Rages On
02. Serpents
03. A Lesson In Virulence
04. Ripe Cadavers
05. Rage Of Honour
06. The Ravenous Dead
07. Deadlock
08. Rebirth Of The Grotesque
09. Possessed
10. Great Deceiver

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