Hackneyed – Carnival Cadavre (2011)

Now on Lifeforce Records, Hackneyed is one of the most promising German Death Metal bands in the last few years. “Carnival Cadavre” marks the band’s third release and shows a great deal of maturity when it comes to writing catchy songs that make you want to start headbanging since the first few seconds. We all know that most DM is almost devoid of creativity, but Hackneyed manage to make the predictable and ‘traditional’ very enjoyable.

After the intro section of “Raze the Curtain” the band explodes into full on chugging DM riffs and vicious growls, this section made us start bobbing our heads up and down since literally the first riffs of the album. “Bugging for Mercy” keeps the groove going and delivers powerful guitars, elaborate drumming, and very interesting slowdowns. The catchiness level is very effective and after two songs this album got us hooked.

Brutality reaches new heights in the song “Infinite Family”, here the band goes a bit off the thick groovy riffs and goes for some different guitar layering. Also, the pig squeals are very well placed and never sound annoying or overdone. The album’s neck breaking levels stay high up with “Damn (You’re Dead Again)”, “Maculate Conception” and “Claustrophobia”, but it’s not until “Circus Coccus Spirilly” that we are forced to re-play the song over and over. In this track we have a more ‘melodic’ approach that features nice riffing and massive drumming, very recommendable track.

If you are looking for Cannibal Corpse/Six Feet Under stuff, tracks like “Feed the Lions” and “Magic Malignancy” are the ones for you. If you want more ‘melodic DM’ stuff, our favorite track is “Cure the Obscure”, both brutal and melodic. In general, we think that “Carnival Cadavre” is definitely the band’s best release to date and any DM fan should check it out. The execution is great and the musicianship is very high, making this a must have release.

Release: August 19th, 2011

Country: Germany