Carnophage – Matter of a Darker Nature (Review)

This is the third album from Carnophage, a Turkish death metal band.

It’s been a long time since 2016’s Monument, but Carnophage have now unleashed a new album. Matter of a Darker Nature is a 33-minute death metal masterclass – rooted in the brutal death metal style, but not limited to it.

If you haven’t encountered Carnophage before, then you’re in for a treat. The promo blurb states that this is for fans of Suffocation, Disentomb, Ulcerate, Deeds of Flesh, Defeated Sanity, Dying Fetus, and Hour of Penance. In other words, Carnophage play a brutal form of technical death metal that’s enriched with a dissonant edge and an earthy sound.

This is the good stuff, right here. The technicality helps shape the songs, adding sharpened teeth to the blasting brutal death metal core of the music. There are a good deal of hooks to be found across the songs, and the dissonant elements only reinforce these. Although not the biggest part of Carnophage’s style, this dissonance helps inform the music to the point that it would be a loss to remove it completely.

Matter of Darker Nature is brutal and intense, with songs that are written to take advantage of the multiple strengths of combining a few different styles into one malefic death metal package. Carnophage’s music has progressed, while still staying true to its roots.

This is very satisfying stuff. Everything feels fine tuned to appeal to people that like well-crafted brutality, from the songs, to the execution and performances, to the production values, (which brings the music to brutally vibrant life). The band are on fire.

I have to say I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to this. Matter of a Darker Nature scratches that brutal death metal itch until it is raw and bloody, while simultaneously offering something superior to the average band that plays in the style. The technical aspects help raise the music up above the norm, but the layer of well-deployed dissonance pushes it over the edge.

Top marks for Carnophage. Don’t miss out on this if you’ve a love for well-delivered brutality.