Review by Michael on December 24, 2023.

Only two years after the furious double-strike of Scent Of Death and Worm Eaten Swedish old-school deathers Carnal Savagery will release another full-length album Into The Abysmal Void as you can probably see in the title. They have not altered their lyrical content too much and having a closer look at song titles like 'Column Of Maggots', 'Reek Of Decomposing Flesh' or 'Defleshing Bones' will ensure you that this isn't about walking in the garden, picking flowers in the sun and such. No, this might be a guideline for coroners or crime investigators. Or murderers. The music underlines this morbidity of the titles pretty much.

Super heavy HM-2 guitar riffs rip your flesh from the bones and the deep, aggressive and hateful vocals are peeling off your skin. The drums knock you down with every single beat and this altogether makes a very brutal, very old-fashioned death metal album that leaves no room for any trends or other unnecessary stuff that nobody wants in an old-school death metal album. I have to confess that the opener 'Defleshing Bones' alone made me very happy when I heard the album for the first time and I would say that this is one of the best HM-2 songs that were written in the last six years (let's take as reference Lik's amazing “Carnage” album back from 2018). Dismember, Entombed, Carnage – all these bands are totally worshiped here and this is just amazing. Or to quote vocalist Mattias Lilja here: “Aaaaaaaaarrrrrghhh!”. Another very groovy and catchy track is the aforementioned 'Column Of Maggots'. This one is a fine mid-tempo stomper with galloping drum patterns and a cool beat that makes it hard not to bang along with (or at least tap your foot to it). But they're not just the old Swedish role models that are used as blueprint, but also the sickos from Autopsy (which isn't the biggest surprise when you look at the titles) who you can clearly hear here and there. 'Morbid Death' sounds like a mixture of Unleashed back on “Across The Open Sea” ('Open Wide') and some of these groovy, Black-Sabbath-like Autopsy songs that spread a very morbid but also catchy atmosphere. The whole album fluctuates more or less between these two poles and so the 14 songs (one bonus track with the very romantic title 'Rotting In A Grave') and with a total running time of 34 minutes become a very diverse and entertaining thing.

Apart from the very good musical content the production is done very well, too. Although I don't have any info who did it, I would guess right out of the blue that it was Dan Swanö again who did a fantastic job with that like on the previous albums, too. I would say that Into The Abysmal Void is a very cool start into the death metal year 2024 and the first highlight that might find its way on one or the other top of 24 poll lists in December. But who knows, maybe there will be a follow-up / another Carnal Savagery album later this year like the guys did back in 22 so that there will be two on the list? Time will tell!

Rating: 9 out of 10 defleshed bones