“Carnival Of Sounds” is a compilation sampler from Century Media Records.
WINDS OF PLAGUE: “Soldiers of Doomsday”
Blackened symphonic deathcore… a rather unusual mix of influences which offer a fresh sound in the ‘done to death’ genre. Besides black metal influences they use keyboards to add a symphonic aspect to the music and also incorporate few instances of black metal style vocals. “Soldiers of Doomsday” has appropriate use of breakdowns while keyboardist’s samples are used sparingly but just enough to give the song a fresh element of difference from some of their deathcore counterparts.
DIVINE HERESY: “Facebreaker”
This is the band started by Dino Cazares while Fear Factory was on hiatus. It contains the same death metal elements and industrial metal elements of Fear Factory, with breakdowns and overuse of blast beats. The song is absolutely as the name says, a face breaker!!
SUICIDE SILENCE: “Wake Up”
Suicide silence is on of the most commercially successful Deathcore bands. They play a brutal brand of Deathcore on the lines of Grindcore and Slam. Excellent musicianship and crushing heavy-as-fuck sound reigns chaos. “Wake Up” is a monster of a song with a great vocal performance.
NAPALM DEATH: “Strong Arm”
The godfathers of grind at their best in the new album “Time waits for no slave”. This furious track off the album is an in-your-face song. Napalm death refuses to lose steam after so many years of making quality music.
3 INCHES OF BLOOD: “Call of the Hammer”
Canadian heavy metallers come across as a thrash/crossover band but labeling them as another New Wave Thrash band is gross injustice. They bring Power metal elements in their music with lots of melodic solos. Manowar fans should definitely check them out.
LACUNA COIL: “Spellbound”
Think of Lacuna Coil and BAM comes Cristina Scabbia in mind. And sadly that’s as metal as it gets. This band is slowly heading into Evanescence territory. They are trying to attain larger audience but are tragically compromising with their music, and are going to those extents of commercializing that it’s nauseating. Don’t be shocked if in near future they start endorsing shampoos and perfumes. “Spellbound” is just your average radio friendly rock number.
ARSONISTS GET ALL THE GIRLS: “The 42nd Ego”
Trend-core or rather Deathcore with annoying electro samples is total turn off. Weird long names and unstructured songs are the mainstay of this decade in extreme core music. The song contains no memorable riffs and it is just another deathcore song.
GOD FORBID: “War of Attrition”
Melodic thrash metal or metalcore are the exact words to describe this band. “War of Attrition” has a lot of Nevermore influences. Vocals are the highlights of the song and guitars incorporate death style grooves.
THE AGONIST: “Martyr Art”
Aah The Agonist…Canadian metalcore outfit having a female singer who is a frequent subject of many metal magazine features. She has a great clean singing voice and performs death metal style growls. “Martyr Art” has lot of tempo changes and good drum work. There are some symphonic interludes too thrown in here and there. Overall it is an average song.
WARBRINGER: “Severed Reality”
Thrash Till Death…is what comes to my mind when I listen to this band. Good thrash metal should be like a brick in your face and Warbringer manages to do with ease. They are a new band but know their metal well. These guys are one of the decent bands playing rehashed thrash metal right now.
DESPISED ICON: “MVP”
Honestly Despised icon has lot of better stuff than this. “MVP” is a breakdown song with virtually nothing except the same riff over dual vocals and speedy bass drum blasts. Why the hell did they even put this song here?
IWRESTLEDABEARONCE: “You Ain’t No Family”
Weird band names are galore. IWRESTLEDABEARONCE is basically random jam sessions put into an album with funny guitar tapping and techno samples. The female singer has a throaty vocal style and tries to sing clean but every time she tries, they just end up sounding the same on each damn song.
EARTH CRISIS: “To Ashes”
Hardcore veterans are back. But it’s the 2000’s not 1996. Earth Crisis is playing the same style of loud metalcore with underlying social messages. “To Ashes” is roller coaster of aggression.
IN THIS MOMENT: “The Great Divide”
Yet another band more known for their attractive female lead singer, than their music. “The Great Divide” is boring metal core but has a catchy chorus. Their music sounds a lot like Avenged Sevenfold. It contains lots of melody on the lines of Lacuna Coil but not as aggressive as The Agonist.
OLD MAN’S CHILD: “Ferden Mot Fiendens Land”
Norwegian melodic black metal band turns heads with this song. “Ferden Mot Fiendens Land” is definitely one of the better tracks of the sampler. Complimenting the heavy riffs, vocals are delivered in a very deep death metal growl that adds much more aggression to the sound. Old man’s child is not one of your generic bands, they put in efforts to evolve their sound and push the boundaries of black metal.
DAATH: “Silenced”
Daath is a five-piece metal band from Atlanta, Georgia. They play groove laden metal incorporating death metal and black metal styles. “Silenced” fails to portray what the band is capable of. This song has a lot of Fear Factory influences.
LUNA MORTIS: “Forevermore”
Luna Mortis is a female fronted progressive metal band that hails from Wisconsin. Well they seem more power metal than anything else surely. I cannot help but notice Dio influence in vocals, which is quite a feat achieved by a female singer. They have memorable melodies but also tinge of Pop which is a bit of a turn off.
SWORN ENEMY: “Still Hating”
Thrash-core! Yes Sworn Enemy is not your Hatebreed rip-off band. These New Yorkers pack a punch and do it in raw style. A promising band but is much underrated. “Still Hating” is hardcore riffing with a thrash twist. Evile does come to mind once but gang shouts and the anger make you headbang with fury.
ARCHITECTS UK: “We’re All Alone”
Architects are a UK based metal band that fuses together hardcore and technical metal. The vocals are harsh and filled with pain and discontent, but too much yelling is discomforting. The song is less technical than their other efforts. Melodic passages with intense drumming make you want to hit someone.
Carnival of Sound is not a bad compilation but its hell of a long CD. For someone who is uninitiated in the modern metal world, this offers a great place to start.
Review by : Nishant Saxena