Cephalic Carnage Anomalies

What's left to say about Cephalic Carnage at this pointWhen Exploiting Dysfunction was released, the band was brand new to everyone, save the select few who had their debut release.Even then the band was somewhat dismissed, especially when playing with other acts such as Converge.When Lucid Interval was released the band was touring more frequently with larger acts and suddenly (it seemed) every hardcore kid was talking about these guys. Now that Anomalies has been released it is known exactly what Cephalic Carnage is capable of both on recording and in a live setting. Anomalies is a perfect example of all the tricks that Cephalic Carnage possesses musically. It follows in tow from Lucid Interval, yet is a complete chapter in and of itself.Musically the band expands upon what is characteristic of Cephalic Carnage.The dual guitars are thick and heavy, complementing one another nicely.The heavily distorted bass just seems to permeate everything.The drumming is superb and well-mixed in terms of styles and tempos.Finally there are the trademark vocals, ranging from insanely low gutturals to high pitched screams.It also helps that Cephalic Carnage has always had a sense of humor with their music, from corpse paint masks and trucker hats live, to random, paranoid lyrics like "Jesus Christ, pyramids on Mars", to light hearted sarcasm such as "Dying will be the death of me."The vocals are further assisted on Anomalies by a host of guests from Barney Greenway of Napalm Death to Travis Ryan of Cattle Decapitation. Bottom Line: In short, the band is great.They play technical metal without falling into the trap of the pathetic songwriting exhibited by most tech bands.They play what has been termed "hydro-grind" while avoiding the repetitiveness of many grind bands.They wear stoner metal influences on their sleeves, though it never becomes boring.Basically, Cephalic Carnage are masters of mixing aggressive music influences and making it their own without having it sound like a piecemeal pile of crap.Anomalies is an album that demands repeat listening.