carnifex - necromanteum

one of the most consistent bands in metal out there. love this new record. hit me when i didn't expect it to. neon green with purple splatter vinyl out of 2.000 copies. nuclear blast. 2023.

carnifex - world war x

never bought this album because there was no european colour vinyl and then i forgot about it. enjoying the latest album 'graveside confessions' quite a bit, this one came back into focus. found this on discogs for a pretty good price (supposedly because of a seam split that i could fix easily). scorcher right here. 500 copies on orange black splatter vinyl made. nuclear blast. 2019.

carnifex - graveside confessions

there not many bands out there as consistent as carnifex. i thoroughly enjoy every single one of their albums, "graveside confessions" is no exception. top tier deathcore from start to finish. nice pink/red merge vinyl limited to 1.500 copies. nuclear blast. 2021.

carnifex - slow death

carnifex had a blistering return with "die without hope" from two years ago. almost disbanded after the release of "until i feel nothing" in 2011, the band grew to new heights and left me deeply impressed. in the following two years i obtained the rest of their vinyl output. now, after a time that definitely doesn't feel like two years to me, the band is back with their newest assault, going by the name of "slow death".

what can i say? "slow death" isn't a slow burn by all means. these ten songs are so damn catchy, if that is a proper term in connection with carnifex, and yet so heartfelt evil. carnifex pushes forward their mix of technical, modern death metal and this specific blackened tinch in melodies. the result works out so well that it's hard for me to pick a favourite. simply check out the title song and "six feet closer to hell".

when nuclear blast announced the release of "slow death" and pre-orders went up, nb had the european edition on offer and a few copies of the u.s. version. the eu version came on clear red vinyl, a bit boring to be honest, but the u.s. version came on "beer" vinyl which looked more intriguing. i opted for this version, regardless of higher pressing numbers. i think the outcomes look as lovely as it looks basic.

a glue pocket sleeve with a typical carnifex artwork - not really my taste but it works well with the musical style of carnifex - a printed dust sleeve and this nice clear "beer" vinyl. is there an actual name to this colour? anyway, i love the sound production on this one in particular. some may call it over-produced but i love this massive wall of bass-driven sound. as you can read on the hype sticker this version is limited to 500 copies. nuclear blast. 2016.

carnifex - the diseased and the poisoned

the final record in two senses. it's the final record to my complete carnifex full length vinyl collection and the final record of the bunch i ordered at victory records. when i threw all that snapcase re-issues in my cart i thought, what the hell i might as well add this one, too. it's the second carnifex full length and the first that was released through chicago's victory records.

back when it came out in 2008 i was eager to hear new stuff of them. i had the 'dead in my arms' debut on uprising records on cd and really liked it. it was one of the first wave of deathcore rolling over me and so their second album was highly anticipated by me. when i finally got the cd of 'the diseased and the poisoned' i was pretty much underwhelmed.

it was the carnifex trademark sound with a better production but the album was missing something. everything is quite good but that last spark of excitement just won't jump to light the fire. it was like that back then and it is like that in present day. despite that fact i just had to get it to have them all. yeah, this confusing record collecting logic.

the label stated the record as clear pink vinyl. well when it arrived and i pulled it out of the sleeve it looked way more like clear red vinyl. only when i hold it up to the light it has this remote pink shade. whatever, this is technically a first press record because it was never pressed to polyvinyl chloride before. clear pink a.k.a. clear red is out of 500 copies. victory records. 2008/2015. 

carnifex - hell chose me

carnifex third full length, which goes by the name of 'hell chose me'. after their second full length 'the poisoned and the diseased', which didn't really clicked with me, i lost track of them. when they released their latest full length 'die without hope' last year and after some hestitation of mine i finally bought it and really liked it. after that i set out to get the rest of their stuff on vinyl. 'until i feel nothing' from 2011 was first and here we are with 'hell chose me'.

i think this album saw carnifex on the peak of their popularity. deathcore was not that strong anymore but still going and carnifex sat on top of the genre. the record proves that. musically it's tight death metal with the right doses of speed and groove. some hints of melody here and there and ready is the beast to set loose. check out the video to the title track here.

the record was released on victory records. they did two pressing so far. the first pressing came on solid red vinyl out of 100 copies and my clear vinyl out of 400 copies. a second pressing on clear red vinyl out of 500 copies is currently up for sale. the artwork might be a bit cheesy but i like it in a way. pretty ominous and anti-christian. very death metal-ish. victory records. 2010.

carnifex - until i feel nothing

carnifex released a new record last year called 'die without hope'. i was pleasantly surprised at how much i came to like it. with this high feeling i checked what other albums of the band might be pressed to vinyl. so i found out that the predecessor of 'die without hope', 'until i feel nothing' by name, got a nice colour treatment by chicago's victory records.

as victory pressed this to coloured vinyl only, it was a no-brainer to order from a german distro. i ordered with hhv because they had a reasonable priced copy in stock and doing serious record business with them had always been a pleasure so far. no exception this time as well. the record itself is a very good deathcore album. carnifex just knows how to perfectly deliver very heavy and catchy neck-breakers.

the artwork isn't really my thing here, though but i appreciate the fact that it's drawn and not another heartless computer imagery. on a side note: this album was produced by the band and tim lambesis. the tim lambesis who once sang for as i lay dying and now serves his sentence in jail for hiring an assassin to eliminate his wife. crazy world. 400 copies made on marbled neon green vinyl. victory records. 2011.

carnifex - die without hope

back in the mid 00's a genre called deathcore was washed up on the shores of the interested listener. bands like job for a cowboy or whitechapel were bands of the first wave that more or less outgrew of their own invention. carnifex is a band that was among that first wave and their first two albums "dead in my arms" and "the diseased and the poisoned" (which never saw the vinyl treatment to all re-pressers out there) were pretty good and are standing on my cd shelf. i catched them live back then and boy, they were a blast.

after these two, the third record "hell chose me" never found its way into my possession. that was because of a time were money was pretty tight and i had to source out very carefully what i should buy or not. since then i lost track of them. i mean, i heard of the release of "until i feel nothing" in 2011 but wasn't really interested to listen to it.

they even went on hiatus as i read about in the label's print magazine blast!. but now they are back with a vengeance. i saw this record up in the new section at nuclear blast shop when i was looking for new stuff. and i was thinking back and forth if i should get this or not. i checked some songs on the net and they were good, sure, but good enough to put money towards this? the answer was yes obviously. and i'm glad i did.

after repeated listenings this thing rips from start to finish. of all those deathcore veterans, carnifex are the closest to their roots, which is in their case a good thing. old school death metal tunes, some black metal hints, the right dose of breakdowns and scott lewis's sick voice make for a fantastic modern death metal record. check "dragged into the grave". killer! and the colour way is really nice too. it's not the promised pink, more a lilac which looks lovely held up against the light. 100 copies made. nuclear blast records / cargo records. 2014.