Review: “Carnage Gathers” by Grave Infestation

“It’s a frantic death metal assault! Violent, and unrelenting. The fast parts are faster, the slow parts are slower, and everything is just plain nastier. It’s like we made an album that sounds like it came out even before our first album! The album was recorded and mixed with engineer Greg Wilkinson at the infamous Earhammer Studios in Oakland, producing a vile record that is a sonic push forward. We wanted the album dripping with disgustingness and bringing forward elements we love about sick, underground death metal. The great thing about working with Greg is he’s entrenched in the music we love and play. He could see our vision and helped us make it happen. He had death metal solutions for death metal problems, along with great old cabinets and amps. Even the studio itself gives off deathly ambience. Each song references a story of someone’s strange relationship to death, real or fictitious. The cover art [by Misanthropic Illustrations] is related to the track The Anthropophagus, it’s about a 17th century French cannibal hermit. That’s the cave he lived in. People called him the Anthropophagus, which means cannibal, but he was just basically starved to madness.” ~ Guitarist and vocalist Graham Christofferson

31st December 2018. That was the date that Vancouver, British Columbia natives Grave Infestation first made their mark. They did so by giving to an unsuspecting World a demo titled “Infesticide” that would shake us to our very core. Six months later came a second demo in “Infestation Of Rotting Death” which not only saw cassette release but also features a cover of “But Life Goes On” by Entombed in homage to one of their influences. 2022 debut full length “Persecution of the Living” has since been followed by a pair of split EPs with Snet and Noroth respectively, all continuing the perpetual forward motion. If the titles don’t speak for themselves, well… lets just say they’re like Mary Shelly’s Dr Frankenstein. Happy to be digging up corpses in the grave yard with an evil grin at the thought of creating a monstrous abomination capable of wreaking havoc on the neighbourhood.

If you’re expecting something brutal and raw then the haunting introduction to “Living Inhumation” might make you do a double take because this quintet can do atmosphere surprisingly well. Naturally that turns into an all out sonic assault on the senses with a Death Thrash solo offering fleeting respite, the pummelling percussive battery from Anju Singh not quite the Warzone artillery shelling bombardment that you might expect. Instead the quartet stick to the periphery, letting the flaming solos in the final third bring the heat of Napalm to the party as they leave scorch marks in their wake. Sounding like a beast trapped at the bottom of a well, Christofferson’s guttural vocals are dry throated and raspy as “Ritualized Autopsy” plays out with flavours of bands like Nihilist, Repulsion and Abhorrence. Distinctly Old School but with a sharper knife than others, their overall sound being cleaner and crisper than most in the genre thanks to the work of Greg Wilkinson behind the boards. Darkly melodic lead guitars bring in the lyrical narrative of pure unadulterated evil in “Inhuman Remains“, buzzsaw riffs bursting into yet multiple fleeting flame jets of soloing. The depths of depravation know no bounds and this example of destructive power isn’t for the faint of heart or weak of mind. Throwing shotgun cartridges on the fire before running like hell, “Black Widow” plays out at the tempo of the damned with more intensity as the apocalyptic dawn draws ever closer, slowing down in the mid section before striking out like an apex predator. Twisted rhythms from calloused, bloody hands keep flowing like a river to the sea, a hint at 80’s Bay Area Thrash influences rising up from the darkness in the final third.

Spitting and snarling with vicious intent “The Anthropophagus” finds Christofferson at his feral finest, his lyrics barely comprehendible as his throat becomes an implement of ear canal destruction. To put it mildly he sounds unhinged, like a man who has been hit over the head repeatedly with bricks while battery acid burns his flesh and against a backdrop of razor sharp riffs and blistering solos, its an abomination that you didn’t know could sound so damn good. A bass solo from Thomas Szuk begins the rampaging title track “Carnage Gathers” in sublime style, the classic chord progressions of musicians possessed by the demonic plague lighting the way. This time a warped solo matches the unhinged vocals as the riffs fly in all directions with the pace and energy of the devils dungeon whippet. What is blood for if not for shedding? remains the ultimate question when “Drenched in Blood” rears its ugly head with a surprising Black ‘n Roll swagger to it as if the band had recently taken in a show from Sadistic Force. Variety is the spice of life but Christofferson refuses to give up on his caustic vocal offerings, leaving the discerning listener on the verge of a brain haemorrhage by bitter end. Once more with feeling? As if straight out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie “Murder Spree” is a cult classic in the making, one of those cuts that embodies an entire album in a single offering. As a record “Carnage Gathers” has everything a Death Metal lover craves so much more, the onslaught a restless and relentless example of the genre at its finest [8/10]

Track Listing

1. Living Inhumation
2. Ritualized Autopsy
3. Inhuman Remains
4. Black Widow
5. The Anthropophagus
6. Carnage Gathers
7. Drenched in Blood
8. Murder Spree

“Carnage Gathers” by Grave Infestation is out 28th February 2025 via Dark Descent Records and Invictus Productions. You can find it over at bandcamp.