I’m a sucker for a gnarly album cover. Give me a detailed image of a zombie, ghoul or otherwise undead creature holding a bladed instrument for use in committing appalling acts, and I’m a happy guy. It was this passion for putridity that led me to choose Into the Abysmal Void, the fifth album by Gothenburg, Sweden-based death metallers Carnal Savagery. While I wasn’t at all familiar with the band’s music, I just couldn’t say no to this most common of death metal tropes. Sure, we’ve all seen our fair share of monsters, madmen and mayhem gracing album covers, but unlike some buzzkills out there, I’ve never grown tired of this pastime. And so I grabbed Carnal Savagery in my grungy mits, hoping that they would prove to be just as grimy and gratuitous as their artwork.
Carnal Savagery are nothing if not grimy n’ gratuitous, and that’s exactly what I was hoping for. They traffic in a pungently pleasant, meat-and-potatoes style of OSDM (a similar point the Good Lord Steel made in his review of the band’s fourth outing in 2022), overflowing with guts, gore, filthy guitar tones, crunchy riffs, beastly grooves, and inhumane snarls. Is it any surprise these Swedish carnal savages kneel and worship at the combined altars of Dismember and Entombed? One of the more interesting aspects of Into the Abysmal Void is the light layer of blackened char that crusts over this death metal behemoth’s scarred hide. Vocalist Mattias Lilja’s vox are a bit higher pitched and dynamic than your average OSDM growler, and the guitar is muddy while still maintaining a dangerous, highly-honed edge. Taken together, these elements result in an album that, much like a Bowie knife duct taped to a sledgehammer, both pummels and slices.
The first track is called “Defleshing The Bones.” What more do I need to say? This is a buzzy, bloody, and brief OSDM onslaught with a memorable chorus to boot (albeit just a hearty repetition of the song title). It’s also a perfect roadmap for the rest of Into the Abysmal Void. You get plenty of frenetic blast-beats, screaming solos, and a guitar that should be legally required to have “The Saw Is Family” inlaid on fretboard (thank you, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, for making that tortured reference possible). “Stench of Burnt Decay” slices through your eardrum with crunchy, eviscerating riffs, as does the mutilating maelstrom that is “Reek of Decomposing Flesh.” At the same time, Carnal Savagery are more than willing to slow things down, building atmosphere and crushing you beneath more unbearable heaviness than Giles Corey. “Morbid Death” is a true groove fest that weds sparse drumming with plodding, hefty riffing. “Column of Maggots,” which wins the award for best song title, leans into that doomy groove, while also throwing in some ominous keys that establish a perfect, unsettling tone and serve as the ideal setup for the return of a grimy, Swedeath adrenaline surge.
Where Carnal Savagery fall a bit short on Into the Abysmal Void is their overreliance on repetition. While there’s no bad song on the album, there are certainly ones that tend to drag, especially on the back half, and I chalk most of that up to too much emphasis on the band’s established songwriting structure. By the time you’ve gotten to the seventh song “The Revenant,” you realize it sounds a lot like the previous tune “Choked to Death.” And while the deathened charm is still there, it’s not quite strong enough to make you forget that even fun filler is still filler. Add in the nit-picky observation that nearly every chorus is simply the song title emphatically growled several times, and it’s clear that while repetition is a generally effective part of Into the Abysmal Void’s formula, Carnal Savagery could stand to shake things up a bit more.
The term “Meat and potatoes” seems to have garnered a negative connotation, and that’s a shame. I used it earlier in this review, and I meant it as a genuine compliment. The idea, as far as I see it, is that something doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel to be engaging and enjoyable. Sometimes comfortable, straightforward and reliable is good. And for us unwashed miscreants, old school death metal is just that. Despite some of its issues, Carnal Savagery‘s latest is honest to goodness meat and potatoes, and for that, I give thanks. I’ll happily clean my plate and go back for seconds, just do me a favor and don’t tell me where this slab o’ protein came from.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 192 kbps mp3
Label: Moribund Records
Websites: carnalsavagery.bandcamp.com | instagram.com/carnalsavagery
Releases Worldwide: January 26th, 2024
