Berlin's purveyors of the macabre, Carnal Tomb, have unleashed their much-anticipated third opus, "Embalmed in Decay," a tour de force in old-school death metal.
The album is a maelstrom of ferocity, embracing briefer compositions that integrate relentless blast beats with the band's signature doom-laden interludes, yielding a modern homage to the genre's halcyon days.
Drawing from the eldritch well of H.P. Lovecraft and the visceral thrills of cult horror, such as Amando de Ossorio's 1972 "Tombs of the Blind Dead," Carnal Tomb interweaves narrative threads of the grotesque and the undead.
This thematic darkness is given form in Skavaldur's grim cover art, which echoes the decrepit splendor of old Italian 'putridariums' where the dead were once left to molder.
Since their inception in Berlin in 2014, Carnal Tomb's voracious appetite for the unrelentingly grim sounds of death metal has been evident. Their impressive discography, which includes the notable full-lengths "Rotten Remains" (2016) and "Abhorrent Veneration" (2019), has solidified their formidable reputation within the international death metal community.
With "Embalmed in Decay," Carnal Tomb not only revive the sepulchral horrors of yesteryear but invigorate them with new life—or rather, unlife. This album stands as a monolithic declaration of their growing dominion in the extreme music sphere, summoning the ancient terror of the genre to cast its shadow once more. Another soundtrack that could serve as the entrance theme to hell.
Enjoy!