Album Review: Die Without Hope by Carnifex

"‘Die Without Hope’ shows Carnifex at their most uncompromising, bleak and arse-splittingly heavy." Since the end of their year-long hiatus, new music from San Diego’s Carnifex has been craved hungrily by the waiting masses. And the time away has done the band some good, as ‘Die Without Hope’ shows them at their most uncompromising, bleak and arse-splittingly heavy. Ranging from the symphonic ‘Dark Days’ to no-holds-barred ‘Dragged Into The Grave’, Carnifex manage to write destructive death metal that doesn’t quickly become claustrophobic and overpowering.

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In late 2012, Carnifex entered what they called "a state of suspended animation," which is really just a glorified way of saying "hiatus." A year and a half later, they've returned with their follow-up to 2011's underwhelming Until I Feel Nothing. Titled Die Without Hope, it might as well be a homage to the genre on which Carnifex built their career: deathcore.Some of the genres key players abandoned it: Bring Me the Horizon and Chelsea Grin pumped their music full of melodic overtones; Suicide Silence headed down the nu-road; Despised Icon simply broke up. Carnifex, on the other hand, took their hiatus as a time to put together their best record yet.

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Review Summary: One foot in ambition, one foot in regression.The act of attempting to switch from deathcore to a more traditional extreme metal sound can be likened to a small-ass peon of a knight trying to fell a 10-foot-tall dragon; it's a ballsy and noble move, but most likely ends up unsuccessful and even embarrassing. Take Job For a Cowboy for example; once a promising act in this infamous genre, they switched to death metal music and abandoned most of their -core elements. Unfortunately, with bland riffs and vanilla songwriting, the band only proved to skeptics that they were not yet ready for the big leagues.

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