Lik – Carnage (Review)

Lik are a Swedish death metal band and this is their second album.

Carnage is aptly named, containing 37 minutes of old-school destruction and dirty brutality. Featuring members of Witchery and Katatonia, Lik primarily grabbed my attention with Carnage’s artwork, and firmly kept it with the album’s impressive and passionate music.

Raw and loose, Lik offer the kind of death metal experience that speaks of an easy familiarity with the style, and a desire to let the the sinister and macabre vibes out naturally, without any polish or embellishments. This is authentic and honest, and very endearing.

With the air of something dredged up from a forgotten crypt and left to rot in the sun, Lik’s music is old and fetid, covered in pus and sores and readily infectious. Yep, this is the kind of well-written and moreish death metal that’s easy to like, and hard to dismiss, at least for me. I can’t get enough of this kind of thing, and Lik do what they do so well that Carnage is a very enjoyable slice of death metal pleasure.

Heavy and brutal, but with a firm melodic streak, the songs on this album are both catchy and memorable. Lik excel at offering straight-to-the-jugular music that doesn’t mess about and knows exactly how to draw the most blood. Carnage is an aggressive mix of bands like Grave, Dismember, and At the Gates, and is just as damn good as that description might lead you to believe.

Very highly recommended indeed.