One of the biggest highlights of the album is the guest appearance of King Diamond’s guitarist Andy LaRocque on the first track. While the riffing fury on the other hand is maximized by the buzz-saw guitar riffing on the opening track “Herald of Demise” which begins with a brief synth intro to descends unrelentingly into heavy gallops. Besides the remarkable drumming of Vincent Verstrepen, the band showcases the talent of the rhythm guitarist Bert Vervoort. The album’s production is clearly heavy and unexpectedly brutal, Carnation wastes no time to reach the apex of brute force.

The flawless execution of the instruments is simply the biggest achievement of this album that allows Carnation to inject incendiary galloping riffs into the song structure. The technical skills of the lead guitarist Jonathan Verstrepen pushes the boundaries which really maintains an intense level of storming the ears with grooves, breakdowns, and fantastic charged death metal riffs in the track “Maruta”. While the riffs stampede into the guttural growls of Simon Duson, the man of the show brings some evil dash of old-school brutality.

The guitars have more of a Swedish vibe and buzzing sound that is perfectly fitting to the aggressive growls and the fat bass guitar of Yarne Heylen. Although nothing feels forced or overdone as we get some intriguing blasting section in the track, “Metropolis” offers some pure Swedish savagery conveyed in a furious tone. The kind of riff obsession that we are treated with on this fantastic track focuses on the powerful effect of the bulldozing drums, which hammers the head with carpet-bombing double bass kicks. The riffs come like concrete and are saturated with memorable melodies and when the drums transition to a mid-pace tempo they are backed by the bass guitar, the memorable guitar solos show the technical aspect of the Belgian lads.

Swift riffing encounters with the bludgeoning drums with the dark guitar passages add a dark and ominous atmosphere to the songs. Another remarkable aspect of the album is that the songs are short and cut from the fat, however, Carnation isn’t shy to make some sudden twists and turns. Though I found the use of the clean vocals on the track “Replicant” unnecessary, thankfully the guttural brutishness soon became dominant again and exploited the capacity of the band to escalate the nastiness of the HM-2 aggression. There are few moments where Carnation shows inspiration from bands like Morbid Angel and other U.S. death metal bands, and this is precisely when the riffing and the punching drums alternate between slower paces.

“Dutroux” opens with a surge of powerful energy from the chainsaw riffing, the proper bass guitar fills and the dynamic drumming remains just as powerful without sacrificing the brutal tone of the song. The Stockholm flavor of the third album proves that Carnation injected some newer elements like d-beat into the songwriting to fit the sound of old-school death metal. While some of the riffing captures the classic Entombed style to keep the dynamics and the pacing aggressive without slowing down the tempo and seamlessly emphasizing a wide variety of styles, the Belgians descends into a slow doom-paced tempo in the track “Submerged in Deafening Silence”. The riffs come straight from the moldy graves and are backed by morbid guttural growls and gloomy-tinged rhythm guitars.

Carnation’s oppressive guitar tone dominates the album as the band’s rooted style focuses on massive grooves across the duration of thirty-five minutes, with the chunky riffs that reverberate throughout the fast, abrasive solos flawlessly executed. “Cycle of Suffering” pulverizes off the ears and begins with the guitars forming a massive wall of sound, allowing the lead guitar to move swiftly through the dark song palette and the chugging riffs cutting through the hammering drums. The final track “Cursed Mortality” contains some catchy synth and excellent atmospheric guitar intro and gradually picks up the pace, but here we get some briefly clean vocals passage before the crushing drums and the chunky riffs begin to erupt. It is one of the best-written songs by the band, which continues to carve new niches into their signature style.

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