Charnel Valley - The Igneous Race
March 23 2008 at 09:05:37 AM
After deservedly having his nuts cut off for releasing Charnel Valley’s first EP — an odious bit of plastic that seemed nearly contemptuous of its style and audience — Marty Rytkonen returns with seven more Charnel tracks, all fortunately less laughable despite being paired once more with some poorly made, ha-ha-ing notebook art. Rytkonen is, of course, the co-founder of Bindrune Recordings, the editor of the excellent Worm Gear fanzine and a writer for
Metal Maniacs. Drummer S. Craig Zahler is also a long-time writer at
Metal Maniacs. At the very least, these things ought to be perversely entertaining, if not instructive. But
The Igneous Race actually turns out to be a very well made pastiche of underground trends starting from 1990 onwards. It never does fully shake the feeling that this might only be a kind of weird exhibition between friends, but the effort is there and this time the duo at least rises above the stigma of their ballpoint sketches. Production-wise, the guitar is grainy but smoothed around the edges. The beats are clear and even though the bass is still largely absent, in general the sound is louder, more distinct and overall professional. Although grouping together Norse (“Blackfist”), Canadian (“January”), and Trad. Metal styles (“Carry their Bodies to The Horizon”—what Abbath’s otherwise execrable I might sound like if it had some true grit behind it), Charnel Valley’s best material appears at the disc’s end with a pair of exceptional Death Metal-themed tracks betraying the undeniable sense and promise of the group and Zahler’s songwriting in particular.
[Todd DePalma]
.jpg "Spooky Fingers: Binge")
.jpg "Interview: Lugubrum")
print
email
RSS
list
big
small
TWITTER