Cephalic Carnage

Conforming To Abnormality (reissue)

Written by: EW on 17/06/2008 19:11:04

What we have here, avid RF.net readers, is complete insanity on the re-release of Colorado\'s Cephalic Carnage\'s 1998 debut LP \"Conforming to Abnormality\". Ironic title really, seeing as even in the world of \'hyper\'-grind, where to be successful requires having driven at least four psychologists to suicide in trying to work you out, CC are more bananas than ever that. 2007\'s \"Xenosapien\" was an off-the-wall outing, featuring a classic grind song in the making in \"Touched By An Angel\", but \"Conforming to Abnormality\" represents the band in its youth at a time when evidently no idea for song improvisation was thrown out. Whether that is good or bad I\'ll leave you to work out, however I\'d like to think I still have the preserve of at least the majority of my sanity and so probably favour the latter.

Little of what is going on here makes much sense. How about telling your girlfriend your new favourite song is \"Occular Penile Recepticle\"? Or how about \"Strung Out On Viagra?\" or \"Perversions And The Guilt After\". Just you wait till she hears them as that\'ll be the last time you ever have pleasantries with her. Maniacal blasts of intense grind and guttural vocals of the lowest nature are the order of the day, and if that alone wasn\'t enough, \"Conforming to Abnormality\" features some of the most bizarre sampling and sound-FX I have ever heard. Personal favourites include the tongue-twister discussion of present-giving at the start of \"Regalos de Mota\" and the hilarious \'Sodomizer\' advert in \"Phantom Pharter\", where those about to find themselves in jail can buy a 21\" state-of-the-art fitness tool that\'ll \"pump in your behind like nobody\'s business\". To say it really needs to be heard is to tell you jumping in water will get you wet.

The first 8 songs of the 28 in total represent the original LP\'s contents and is where the majority of the \'music\' is contained, as most of the 20 bonus tracks consist of little more than piss-taking and Napalm Death style song lengths. Amongst them are some good moments of Pig Destroyer and Nasum style grind, featuring stop-start riffs and blastbeats aplenty and an extremely down-tuned guitar sound for good measure, with \"Jihad\" and \"Analytical\" being the highlights on a purely musical level. Even back in 1998 the level of musicianship was far from bad, with the drummer especially adding some nice but subtle touches underneath a wall of guitar and bass rumbling alongside the literally dozens of Suffocation patented blastbeats he delivers. Really, though, \"Conforming To Abnormality\" isn\'t going to satiate any musical needs of a listener as they can be catered for by \"Xenosapien\" or Nasum, and it is the memory of the chaos itself that will linger longest in the mind. For Cephalic Carnage diehards and/or self-confessed nutters only.

4

Download: Jihad, Stepped In Cow Shit Blues, Phantom Pharter, Regalos De Mota
For The Fans Of: Pig Destroyer, Nasum, Napalm Death, Cattle Decapitation
Listen: Myspace
Buy: iTunes

Release date 05.05.2008
Relapse Records

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