The words "stoner" and "metal" typically conjure images of slow, churning riffage and a peculiar charming sloppiness; a musical malaise indicative of leafy intoxication. Celebrated tokers, Cephalic Carnage, completely obliterate this stereotype with their latest release, Xenosapien. This album proves them to be deep thinkers lost in the clouds of their own exhalations, as well as stunningly technical musicians unconstrained by the tempo deficiencies typical of altered states of perception. Long a band lauded for their offbeat, jazzy stylings, this affair sets them apart from the pack as grinders par excellence. The album opens with impossible meter shifts in the march-like "Endless Cycle of Violence." Like some death metal demon spawn of John Phillip Souza and Igor Stravinsky, this is sublime grind; fierce blasting, buzzsaw riffs, and one hell of a hook (an odd-meter hook?!). This is no one-off performance, however. The band adroitly demonstrates noodle-y abstractions of riff and song form on "Divination & Volition," "Molting," and "Heptarchy(In the UK);" these tracks take unusual routes and maintain viciously complex rhythms rife with mathematical intricacy. Equally as ferocious, though less challenging, are the more typical grind of tracks like "Vaporized" and "Let Them Hate so Long as they Fear." Things get a little repetitive with the heavily tremolo picked "Touched by an Angel," however it blooms beautifully into half-time harmony at the bridge. At "G.lobal O.verhaul D.evice" the mood shifts towards stoner sludge, but with a pleasant ethereal vibe; like some pleading distress call to the heavens at the apocalypse. From there it's back to the grind, polishing off with three more furious numbers each with varying degrees of intricacy and all masterfully executed.
Xenosapien is a tour de force of visceral and technical metal. Infusing everything from Maiden-esque gallops and harmonies, to pummeling death and grind; from frenzied atonal noodling, to the gentle crooning of a saxophone; this release is simultaneously reverent and forward-thinking, and at all times fun. The members of Cephalic Carnage are that rare breed of musicians that choose to grow rather than stagnate. Their intensity and sincerity have born this adventuresome monster of an album and that deserves respect. Listen to this album and be rewarded.
8.2/10
Favoured: 0
