There comes a time in every great grindcore band’s life when they just don’t want to play blastbeats for two-and-a-half minutes straight anymore. Napalm Death gave up after two records, Carcass hammered along until their Swansong, Discordance Axis folded under the pressure. Now even Denver’s self-proclaimed "Rocky Mountain hydrogrind" kings, Cephalic Carnage, is going death metal. While their 2002 album, Lucid Interval, featured juggernaut syncopations, staggered time-signatures and caustic cymbal clangs, this record’s riffs abruptly stop and start in rugged 4/4, working the gas and brakes simultaneously. "Dying Will Be The Death Of Me" even features proggy counter-vocals (read: sung, not growled) à la Killswitch Engage. Overall, Anomalies is the group’s most well-executed outing: the riffs are crisp, the bark-and-response transitions are tight and the drums sound more thunderous than ever. But gone are the quirky stereophonic polyrhythms, the clever metal culture commentaries like "Black Metal Sabbath" (instead, we get "Kill For Weed") and, for the most part, the breakneck blastbeat battery. Final track "Ontogeny Of Behavior" spans everything Cephalic Carnage was, is and will be. It starts with creepy atmospherics and, over the course of 10 minutes, builds to a torrential hurricane of double-bass downpour. Call it evolution. Call it sleep. Call it death.

Save This Page

Digg This!