Carnal Forge is best known for their excellent mix of Slayer aggression, Forbidden energy and Swedish melody, often hinting at easily noticeable The Haunted and At The Gates influences. Aren't You Dead Yet? is a well-produced (quite possibly their best studio work up to now), engaging hyper-thrash metal record with occasional death metal screams spitting out words of hate and destruction. The shiny mix helps their precise musicality to come through with more focus on speed and energy than their previous output The More You Suffer. Powerful twin guitar work is often followed by pummeling drumming and bass, and the strong rhythm work is best displayed on the latter songs "Final Hour in Hell" and "Totally Worthless". The brief bass interlude in the former and the wailing vocal performance on the latter make these pieces stand out.
Only 35 minutes, the songs rarely exceed the 3-minute mark. They are quite compact structurally, with shortened guitar solos and more emphasis on melodic songwriting. All songs deliver classic Carnal Forge style neo-thrash guitar riffs with highly aggressive vocals. They aren't too different from each other, but the dark intro of "Burn Them Alive", the thrashy beginning of "Waiting for Sundown" and the kick-ass riffing on "Exploding Veins" are the highlights of the album. It could be argued that all of these ingredients could be put together in order to write stronger songs that would have musical longevity, but still, the songs on Aren't You Dead Yet? are no doubt going to please the Carnal Forge fans as well as the fans of the aforementioned groups mentioned in this review.
The 2-minute track "Sacred Flames" is Carnal Forge's metalcore moment, but it showcases an interesting drum work. The modern vibe is also prevalant on tunes like "Inhuman" with weird back-up vocals and fat bass lines. This album also contains two live video clips that are nice to watch. If you don't care about originality, give this album a listen.
Track Listing
- Decades of Despair
- My Suicide
- Burn Them Alive
- Waiting for Sundown
- Exploding Veins
- Sacred Flame
- Inhuman
- Final Hour in Hell
- Totally Worthless
- Strength of Misery
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