Cephalic Carnage is a band from the USA that mixes jazz, grind, and death metal together to create some of the most original music in the extreme metal scene. I own Exploiting Dysfunction and Anomalies, and I preordered Xenosapien a few days ago. Exploiting Dysfunction is the best material that I've heard by them, due to the massive time changes and the extreme amount of variation in every song. Even though Anomalies was decent, it disappointed me because they slowed down a little and lost some creativity.

This band is meant to be seen live. Pretty much every member switches off doing vocals, and they rotate around the stage every time someone else does backup vocals. I've also mentioned the 360 degree wall of death that they encourage their fans to participate in, and pretty much everyone in that pit gets their ass kicked. Jawsh, their former bassist, was one of the more entertaining band members, with his side commentary and stage presence. I'm really curious to see how they play without him.

So, does anyone else like this band? Has anyone heard the new album yet?

I actually just saw these guys tonight. They put on a great show. They're crazy, constantly jumping around on stage and such. I thought I was going to get hit in the face with a guitar. The 360 wall of death didn't happen, although it did earlier in the week when Skinless played. Anyway....

I heard the new album earlier in the week. Good stuff. Nice and technical. Not as much melodic bits as Anomalies but still a good listen.

Still havnt checked these guys out, but that 360 Wall of Death sounds freakin' sweet!!

Written by Dangerboner on 28.05.2007 at 00:43

Cephalic Carnage is a band from the USA that mixes jazz, grind, and death metal together to create some of the most original music in the extreme metal scene. I own Exploiting Dysfunction and Anomalies, and I preordered Xenosapien a few days ago. Exploiting Dysfunction is the best material that I've heard by them, due to the massive time changes and the extreme amount of variation in every song. Even though Anomalies was good, it disappointed me because they slowed down a little and lost some creativity.

This band is meant to be seen live. Pretty much every member switches off doing vocals, and they rotate around the stage every time someone else does backup vocals. I've also mentioned the 360 degree wall of death that they encourage their fans to participate in, and pretty much everyone in that pit gets their ass kicked. Jawsh, their former bassist, was one of the more entertaining band members, with his side commentary and stage presence. I'm really curious to see how they play without him.

So, does anyone else like this band? Has anyone heard the new album yet?

Yeah first the leaked version and last Frriday I got the otriignal copy of Xenosapien. Very good solid album for someone who already likes Cephalic Carnage, still all over the place from time to time, sounding a bit like a more death metallish The Dillinger Escape Plan during their Calculating Infinity era

I liked Xenosapien as well. I also have Lucid Interval, which is also and enjoyable album. I'm seeing them live on June 4th, with about 12 other bands, should be sweet.

^ Lucky guys

Some good band in DM genre , they have atleast unique sound and hence they deserve some respect. New album release by the band is absolutely amazing , wasnt expecting THIS from this band .... A must for all death metal lover .... some of the best release of the year. No matter which genre they play , but they play kick ass and beautiful music.

I just got the new album in the mail and it's fucking sweet. It's sounds way different from all the other albums, but they all have their own identity. I haven't listened to all of it yet, but so far it just sounds like death metal without any grind to me, but with technical flairs here and there. So far, I think it might be tied for my favorite album this year.

I don't think there's other band about which my perception had varied so dramatically, as with Cephalic Carnage (I know that was dradfully written but who fucking cares, you understand my idea)... I still remember how much I hated Exploiting Dysfunction the first time I listened to it... I usually simply ignore albums I don't like at first listen, but with Exploiting Dysfunction was simply HATRED... but somehow, it produced "something" in me (better hated than ignored, they say) and I wanted to listen to it again... I downloaded it and somehow began to like it, and not I find it a no less than outstanding album... and yes, I listened to Anomalies later and found it very generic.

Xenosapien was pretty good, its pretty damn technical lol. [riff wise] the drumming was pretty good IMO as well. john is a beast

Yeah man, I also noticed how crazy the drumming is on Xenosapien. That dude changes things up constantly and has impressive speed.

Here's some trivia for you guys:

I heard that when Cephalic Carnage plays in Colorado, they don't go by the same name. Instead, they are Carne Soria (sp?) and have some sort of Mexican theme. The weird thing is that they do not advertise many of the shows there - you only hear about them playing from a "friend's friend" or whatever. The shows only cost $2 - $3 as well. I have a friend who is a music promoter that used to live in that area and he told me this the other day.

Great band , brutal shit , I love all those mixes turn into black metal noise... I have a couple of their albums and I must say they really rock... Great Band

One of my favorite bands they mix together so many styles so well and in such a brutal chaotic way. Their songs remain very unpredictable but they still make it so that they flow together well. They're fucking amazing live I'll be seeing them for the third time now on the 31st with Between the Buried and Me and the Red Chord. Kind of a weird bill but whatever. I love the jazzier stuff on the older albums. Anomolies and Xenosapien are both great albums and remain very true to the Cephalic Carnage sound but they really lost a lot of the experimentation which is understandable because they probably like their sound now and have focused in on it.

All of the times I've seen them there has been no wall of death type thing do they only do this during headlining shows?

Written by Endoftherainbow on 14.07.2007 at 01:30

One of my favorite bands they mix together so many styles so well and in such a brutal chaotic way. Their songs remain very unpredictable but they still make it so that they flow together well. They're fucking amazing live I'll be seeing them for the third time now on the 31st with Between the Buried and Me and the Red Chord. Kind of a weird bill but whatever. I love the jazzier stuff on the older albums. Anomolies and Xenosapien are both great albums and remain very true to the Cephalic Carnage sound but they really lost a lot of the experimentation which is understandable because they probably like their sound now and have focused in on it.

All of the times I've seen them there has been no wall of death type thing do they only do this during headlining shows?

Well, when I saw them with Between the Buried and Me they didn't headline, but they did the wall of death anyways. However, from my understanding, they haven't done it since Jawsh left.

And BTW, I completely agree with you with the part I bolded.

I finally got Lucid Interval and it's fucking tight. I don't really know if I have a favorite Cephalic Carnage album, but this one might be it, even though I still need some more time to fully digest this album. They managed to keep the spontaneity and brutality from Exploiting Dysfunction, but they made it slightly more focused, while still being crazy as hell. Now I need to get their first album...

The first CC album I got was Lucid Interval, thought Black metal sabbath was awesome, much more of a stoner album i reckon.
I gotta say tho, i love the new album, the first song has to be my favourite, the "endless cycle of violence" chorus is awesome.

Will be seeing Cephalic Carnage once again in about a month but now at Roadburn Festival where they will do the following:

Cephalic Carnage is going to play the entirety of "Halls of Amenti", their ultra doom-influenced record from 2002, as part of an entire set of drone and doom. The band will be doing this special set only at Roadburn, and performing "Halls of Amenti" live for only the second time ever.

Lenzig van Stroking comments: "Cephalic Carnage is going to drone out with the droniest of the drone at Roadburn 2008, and be a mile high while doing it -playing Halls of Amenti, and plodding through the chaos with visuals that will bring tears, sighs, awes,smiles and joys...or sadness. It will be a complete honor to play such a prestigious event in an amazing country and city. In other words: Our live performance will be like Dillinger Escape Plan plodding through the La Brea Tar Pits."

SO a totally different Cephalic Carnage this time around, I am soooo psyched.

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 17.03.2008 at 09:27

Will be seeing Cephalic Carnage once again in about a month but now at Roadburn Festival where they will do the following:

Cephalic Carnage is going to play the entirety of "Halls of Amenti", their ultra doom-influenced record from 2002, as part of an entire set of drone and doom. The band will be doing this special set only at Roadburn, and performing "Halls of Amenti" live for only the second time ever.

Lenzig van Stroking comments: "Cephalic Carnage is going to drone out with the droniest of the drone at Roadburn 2008, and be a mile high while doing it -playing Halls of Amenti, and plodding through the chaos with visuals that will bring tears, sighs, awes,smiles and joys...or sadness. It will be a complete honor to play such a prestigious event in an amazing country and city. In other words: Our live performance will be like Dillinger Escape Plan plodding through the La Brea Tar Pits."

SO a totally different Cephalic Carnage this time around, I am soooo psyched.

Please do a concert review for that.

Hmm...Cephalic Carnage playing Doom? That's quite interesting...

Fuck...I just found out that Relapse is releasing a repackaged, remixed and remastered version of Conforming to Abnormality with 21 bonus songs. Looks like this will be another album that I'll have two versions of, bought.

Written by Dangerboner on 07.04.2008 at 02:41

Fuck...I just found out that Relapse is releasing a repackaged, remixed and remastered version of Conforming to Abnormality with 21 bonus songs. Looks like this will be another album that I'll have two versions of, bought.

Mmmm I usually highly mistrust these kind of remasters, I can count with my fingers those who had been worthy, most of them mean labels raping a band's legacy to make money out of butchering their albums. I think Conforming To Abnormality is pretty good the way it is.

Yeah, it's definitely fine how is was originally released. The only problem I have with that album is its length. It's only half an hour, but that includes nine minutes of the last track, which is just filler, so the album is barely over 20. The bonus songs (probably demos) would be the only reason for me buying the re-release.

LUUUUCCIFERRRRR....SUCK MY BALLS

Cool, I'm checking this band...