Artist: Cephalic Carnage
Label: Relapse Records
Release Date: 8/20/02
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Title: Lucid Interval Artist: Cephalic Carnage Label: Relapse Records Release Date: 8/20/02 |
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Go to Reader Reviews | ||
Abyss's Review:
Anyone who is already acquainted with this band should already know that they take a wide spectrum of influences and twist them into some sick grind. Influences including death, jazz, Mr. Bungle (past and present), and now (with this release) Theodore of the Chipmunks. Yep, you heard me. But it's probably not what you think. I know that will scare a lot of this band's older fans, but before you panic, his influence is in very limited use. I realize that The Chipmunks are not very 'metal', but I always thought Theodore was the underappreciated rocker in the bunch. Sure Alvin got all of the attention, and Simon got most of the technical credit, but I always heard that Theodore was the dark soul in the group. His tragic weight gain was brought upon by his inability to express his feelings (and his mounting chemical dependency), so he would binge long into the night. Many people don't know this, but he was largely responsible for the band's brief attempt to court the underground with Chipmunk Punk. Unfortunately the suits took over, and sugar coated the whole thing. A tragedy I know, but I digress.
"Influences include death, jazz, Mr. Bungle, and now (with this release) Theodore of the Chipmunks." This album is a hard one to wrap your head around, much more so than Exploiting Dysfunction. And while it retains a great deal of the groove and chaos that their previous works utilized, it also comes across as a more controlled work. This album strikes me as much subtler than the last. That one (and Conforming to Abnormality as well) pretty much just hit you over the head with a sledgehammer and left you to count the little birdies spinning round your head. This one guides you, more often than not, through what they want you to hear. It's almost as though they a trying to convey a specific idea, and they don't want you to miss it. And while that might sound less ambitious, even boring, this isn't the case. The songs still whipsaw from blastbeat storms to warm and fuzzy jazz tangents, they just seem to flow together better. This can be a good or bad thing, depending on what you like to get out of this band. The songs seem less awkward, but also don't have the intoxicating contrasts that they once had. That's not exactly true, they still have them but they don't stand out as much.
In all honesty, despite the long hours I've put in with this album, I still am not sure if I'm disappointed in it. I had such lofty expectations after the last one completely blew my mind. At the same time, I'm afraid that if I don't give it a five, I'll regret it a few months from now. Bottom line is that everyone out there should make an effort to listen to this album and see for yourself. Hopefully I'll get the chance to see these guys perform this material in a live setting soon, as that is where this band really shines. One word review: Challenging.
"This album strikes me as much subtler than the last."
Death's Review:
As anyone at all familiar with these Colorado avant garde grind-meisters might expect, this one takes a bit of getting used to. But the effort is well worth it, my friends, well worth it indeed. It all came together for me after a couple of focused listens, and after a while, through the blur of expertly-executed grind, killer jazz, death and flamenco inspired metal and fucked-up out-of-left field samples, I came to the resolute conclusion that Cephalic Carnage absolutely fucking smoke. End of story.
"After a couple of focused listens... I came to the resolute conclusion that Cephalic Carnage absolutely fucking smoke." Seriously, if you are up for a musical, genre-bending adventure that somehow manages to stay totally fucking brutal and totally fucking metal throughout, then this is the album for you. The album even features a jazz-style instrumental which displays the band's killer metallic chops in the context of a track that I'm not even sure was meant to be metal! From the more straightforward "brutal" strains of the opening track (with a sampled female voice asking something like, "What is this music?" that made me do a double-take the first time I was listening in my car, turn to the woman next to me and say, "Huh? What did you say?") to the very last note of the record, Lucid Interval plays like a an album that is much more about the art than about finding its proper place in the scene, selling records or any other such relative bullshit. The fact that it rips your fucking face off at every turn is simply a bonus.
I can't conclude the review without a comment on the classic lyrics to "Redundant," which follow the evolution of a 'zine from birth to boredom and everything in between. Lines like "my reviews are excellent, interviews are in-depth!" are very funny . . .
"The fact that it rips your fucking face off at every turn is simply a bonus."
Hel's Review:
I have a mental list of bands whose next release I always eagerly anticipate. Cephalic Carnage is one of the bands on this list. Not only have I enjoyed their past releases, but on the occasions when I have met any of these guys, they have been unerringly kind. So, cool music, cool people = band I like. Sure, it's a simple equation, but it works.
"After a solid week of listening to this album at least once, and often twice, a day, I am utterly entranced." For some reason, I had a more difficult time than usual wrapping my mind around Lucid Interval. Of course, by nature, it is somewhat difficult to fully grasp any Cephalic album, but this one was particularly troublesome. I didn't find myself as absorbed as I expected to be - at first.
"There aren't many bands around who so consistently display this level of creativity and intensity." But as I sit at my keyboard, after a solid week of listening to this album at least once, and often twice, a day, I am utterly entranced. Which was my initial expectation, one that I admit is inherently quite high. (Heh, heh - "high"!) It took longer than I remembered to kick in, but there it is - that feeling of not being able to hear it often enough!
The crux of Cephalic's music is their outstanding musicianship. They have what I consider to be a unique ability to take the most complicated musical phrases and combine them into songs that not only makes sense, but also actually manage to sound effortless somehow. Mind-boggling so, if you will. There aren't many bands around who so consistently display this level of creativity and intensity, and they deserve full credit for accomplishing it once again.
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