Customer Reviews

Aren't You Dead Yet?

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Oh my, this is impossible, they topped all their other albums! This is by far the BEST Carnal Forge CD yet! Brutal Thrash Metal played fast and aggressively. Sounds like a heavier version of older Slayer. It is absolutely amazing. Century Media is a lable known for amazing bands and release the best of the best and this is by far one of the best cds i've listened to all year. I say this is an absolute must buy!

okay, I wasn't expecting a followup to The More You Suffer so early, but this album is AMAZING. it's another step in their evolution from Firedemon to The More You Suffer. there's way more groove in this one, it's not quite as heavy, but it's faster than The More You Suffer, it's simpler and more like Firedemon in a lot of ways, but it has a ton of groove. basically it's a more evolved version of Firedemon. the songs are shorter again, there's 10 tracks on this album, and it's barely over 35 minutes. and that's the Carnal Forge I love. it's something I can't make myself get bored of. I've listened to it once or twice a day for the last 2 weeks, and this album still won't quit on me. the standout songs are Decades of Despair, the single released on the Century Media site for download, and The Final Hour. the next best is The Strength of Misery, it's the last track, and has the most groove and melody of any song on the album and possibly any song in their catalogue. it's too bad they lost Jonas though. I hope Jens can carry the torch and they make another wicked album after this.

Carnal Forge formed at pretty much the exactly wrong time. They debuted ("Who's Gonna Burn") in many years ago, in 1998, although, technically speaking, they were actually born in `97. Either one of these years was during a rather unfortunate period for the band. See, the mid-to-late 1990's marked a substantial uprising in thrash metal (and old-school-esque thrash, at that). Hence, the scene became flooded with old-school thrash revitalists such as God Forbid, Shadows Fall, Burn The Priest, Dew Scented, Hatebreed, Caliban, Machine Head, Ringworm, Pig Destroyer, Soulfly, Nailbomb, Himsa, and Indestructible Noise Command (to name only a few). Granted, all of these bands are, overall, quite a bit better than Carnal Forge, and they certainly are a lot more popular, too. They do possess a few qualities that would otherwise be considered fairly distinguishable, but none of them ultimately helped their causes. For starters, they weren't the first or finest product of the Swedish speed metal circuit (The Crown and The Haunted have got `em beat.), The Crown have them beat). Next, producing a melodic death metal-influenced thrash didn't help matters at all, seeing how those were not hard to come by in the Nineties, either. (See also: At The Gates, Arch Enemy, Vomitory, In Flames, etc.) And, subsequently, there were countless groups (i.e. Hatesphere) that followed who drew so heavily from the Gothenburg playbook that it is sometimes impossible to discern the fine difference between who is actually a Swede (i.e. Hatesphere), and who isn't (Killswitch Engage). Plus, not even having black metal-tinged vocals do much in the way of innovation (Children Of Bodom, Dark Tranquility, and God Dethroned - among others - all do that.) Finally, to make things even worse, after only a few years time, the genre once again boomed with popularity. This resurgence in popularity was a precursor to the massively popular metalcore genre; and it found new millennium thrashers like Lamb Of God, Chimaira, Sworn Enemy, Trivium, Grimfist, Dragonlord, Terror, Unearth, Watch Them Die, Superjoint Ritual, Impaled, Bleeding Through, Gojira, and High On Fire quickly rising to stardom.

As you can see, Carnal Forge could in no way compete with such popularity, so they eventually got kind of swallowed up in and pushed aside by it. But the point I am trying to make, here, is that C.F. are a pretty darn good, and very solid band, no matter how underrated and overlooked they may be (they are easily one of the Nineties' frontrunners in that category).And their music usually well-worth checking out for anybody that has more than a passing interest in thrash and/or speed metal. "Aren't You Dead Yet?," their fifth proper record, is no exception.

This 2004 release hits the ground running. "Decades Of Despair" would not be at all mismatched coming off of The Haunted's first two records. Jonas' larynx-shredding screams lead the charge over blistering, rip-roaring guitars, continuously strong hooks, hard-rocking rhythms, and machine-gun drums. This frenetic pace is briefly down for "Burn There Alive", a fairly restrained number with tasty and well-placed melodic soloing. But things never miss a beat, thanks to the inclusion of later tracks like "Waiting For Sundown,", which has brisk and propulsive thrash pacing, a decent solo, memorable choruses, and cool, Black Dahlia Murder-lite vocal patterns. The succeeding "Sacred Flame" is yet another blood-gushing fist-pumper, and a heavy, Megadeth-ian ripper backed by fiery, headbangable chugging, and a good, shout-worthy chorus. Granted, though, it does lose a few points for having metalcore-copped attitude and song structures. Later, we get "Final Hour In Hell," with its rock-solid riffs and hook-laden adherent grooves, brings to light Carnal Forge's ample "Heartwork"-era Carcass influences. (It makes little room for doubt about where the band got their moniker from). The song after this, "Totally Worthless," stands out, only not for the reason you might think. it is quite a bit different from most of the rest of the material. It tosses in a few arrangement changes into the mix by offsetting the usual Slayer-esque mayhem with surprisingly mid-tempo and heavy (and sometimes nearly crushing), densely lumbering, ominously repetitive, and darkly doomy power chords in the beginning. It all wraps up in suitably strong, and thoroughly aggressive and exciting fashion: "The Strength Of Misery" is a scorching epilogue backed by extra great and busy riffing and blazing, King/Hanneman-worthy wild, shred soloing.

Granted, it cannot be said to be a complete grand slam, and it may often be criminally underrated and/or overlooked by most thrash fans, but let the record show that "Aren't You Dead Yet?" is a good album nonetheless.

I picked up an earlier Carnal Forge disc (1998's Who's Gonna Burn) and wasn't terribly impressed, but it's hard not to appreciate an album like 2004's Aren't You Dead Yet. With this album, the Swedish neo-thrashers have found a perfect balance between Slayer-inspired thrash riffs and At the Gates-style melodic death metal.

Aren't You Dead Yet is a razor sharp thrash metal album that's completely heavy, completely brutal, and wickedly fast. I don't normally go for thrash metal, as the lack of melody makes it hard to hold my interest. Carnal Forge has just enough melodic elements to keep me engaged, and the sheer violence of these songs makes their impact almost physical. You don't just listen to songs like "Burn them Alive" and "Inhuman", you get knocked down to the floor by them.

I'd definitely recommend Aren't You Dead Yet to fans of Slayer, Lamb of God, At the Gates, Dimension Zero and The Haunted. Carnal Forge will make your ears bleed with this one!

PS - I love how the inserts are die-cut in the shape of a bullet hole that lines up with the center of the CD. How cool is that?

I used to have Carnal Forge's 1st album, & I thought it was OK. And over the years I've checked out there CDs as they were released but each one sounded still..JUST OK. But this is the 1st Carnal Forge album that finally blew me away! This CD is just non stop action from beginning to end & is easily one of the best thrash metal albums I've ever heard. What made this album different from any release I've heard from this band is simply the production is much better & the guitars just sound thicker for that really heavy sound. Well after listening to this brutal masterpiece & hearing samples from the entire album that's soon to come out from Carnal Forge, I now have high hopes for this band...& now maybe I'll check out some of the old stuff again to see if my point of view might be different. Definitely check this disc out if you love really heavy duty thrash!

Carnal Forge has been on such a breakneck pace lately, releasing basically an album a year for the last
four years, that they're finally hitting a creative wall. While I really enjoyed "The More You Suffer" and
earlier efforts, I find myself not quite liking this latest one as much. Yes they've got their time tested brand of
neo thrash revivalism displayed here in typical razor sharp fashion but it seems like they didn't have the
time to craft really solid riffs, instead using blazing speed to gloss over some of their less creative moments
or just dumping that approach altogether for some uninspiring slower songs.

That's not to say they've lost their edge as some of the songs on here are their most vicious to date but
even these are marred with less memorable riffs and far less use of melodic accents than past efforts. This
tends to give less formal distinction between the faster cuts as so they end up blurring together into one big
fast speedball. It would be impossible to choke that sucker down in one sitting if they didn't break it up with
some slower cuts but, apart from a few tasty riffs nestled throughout, these songs provide little more than a
much needed breath before the assault continues.

Of course this doesn't mean it's not a good record. It's angry as hell and delivers the goods better than
pretty much any band in this genre but it's just not quite at the level of their last release or even their
earlier, more groove based thrash work. The one area it does exceed their past efforts in the production. It'
s meatier here with a more defined edge to the guitars so you can really here the quality guitar work. If their
last record had been recorded in this fashion it would have been even more amazing. Still, even a less than
stellar Carnal Forge release slays almost any other aggressive metal coming out right now so there's no
way you should pass this up. Just buy their earlier work first if you haven't already!

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Swedish thrash masters "carnal forge" are back with there 5th debut album & it is awesome. If you like thrash/death metal this is a must have. Carnal forge are one of the most important metal bands in the business. They are keeping thrash metal intresting and alive. This album is insane, nuff said!

This sounds more Metalcore than thrash, even though Carnal Forge's roots originate from thrash. Picture Lamb of God exchanging sounds with At The Gates minus the technicality and you get an idea of what this band is about these days. Short and to-the-point it's all over in 35 minutes. Much of the riffing tends to sound tedious at times and after a while it all sounds interchangeable, but thanks to the fury and anger within the tracks they never lose their intensity. The album is mostly fast-driven for almost its entirety, but amidst the chaos you will hear some notable melodic parts which do blend well with the music. Full with energy and extreme adrenaline this record is a decent, passable listen but doesn't quite manage to remain memorable.

Carnal Forge is best known for their excellent mix of Slayer aggression, Forbidden energy and Swedish melody, often hinting at easily noticeable The Haunted and At The Gates influences. Aren't You Dead Yet? is a well-produced (quite possibly their best studio work up to now), engaging hyper-thrash metal record with occasional death metal screams spitting out words of hate and destruction. The shiny mix helps their precise musicality to come through with more focus on speed and energy than their previous output The More You Suffer. Powerful twin guitar work is often followed by pummeling drumming and bass, and the strong rhythm work is best displayed on the latter songs "Final Hour in Hell" and "Totally Worthless". The brief bass interlude in the former and the wailing vocal performance on the latter make these pieces stand out.

Only 35 minutes, the songs rarely exceed the 3-minute mark. They are quite compact structurally, with shortened guitar solos and more emphasis on melodic songwriting. All songs deliver classic Carnal Forge style neo-thrash guitar riffs with highly aggressive vocals. They aren't too different from each other, but the dark intro of "Burn Them Alive", the thrashy beginning of "Waiting for Sundown" and the kick-ass riffing on "Exploding Veins" are the highlights of the album. It could be argued that all of these ingredients could be put together in order to write stronger songs that would have musical longevity, but still, the songs on Aren't You Dead Yet? are no doubt going to please the Carnal Forge fans as well as the fans of the aforementioned groups mentioned in this review.

The 2-minute track "Sacred Flames" is Carnal Forge's metalcore moment, but it showcases an interesting drum work. The modern vibe is also prevalant on tunes like "Inhuman" with weird back-up vocals and fat bass lines. This album also contains two live video clips that are nice to watch. If you don't care about originality, give this album a listen.