For the sake of enforcing purgatory upon those who’d found their moment of quietus the ‘second death’ of the putridarium would often take up to a year to drain downward into the muck-filled pestilential drains of its reeking crypts. To sit as a corpse draining of all flesh down to bones (atop a makeshift strainer) might involve outfit changes, seeming endless in-mourning visits and ultimately provide a deep reminder of the value of confronting death, the impermanence of the flesh, and hope for hereafter. We arrive upon the ancient church and its stinking mortuary today for the sake of witnessing mortality dismissed into the open air as Berlin, Germany-based death metal quartet Carnal Tomb let loose their crucially realized third full-length album as a despondent soul given a chance at divine judgement. Instead ‘Embalmed in Decay‘ is a dramatic showing of elder rot and eye-burning viscera sloughing off the auld corpse of ‘old school’ death metal wherein they take another worthy step beyond the last in realizing their own vision of classics-minded (but not bound) death metal. The end result is especially well-curated, memorable, and doesn’t lack in its exploration of new textures and riffcraft which enrich the morbid tunnel vision one’d want from the old ways revised and re-fleshed.

Carnal Tomb formed circa 2014 as a not-so typical example of an early Swedish style death metal band generally resembling classics era works from Grave, Unleashed and Autopsy complete with elements of classic horror films inspiring their themes. Aiming for a purely classicist result the walk-up to their debut album (‘Rotten Remains‘, 2016) they’d found a balance between the ruddy simplicity of late 80’s death metal and the energetic riff-possessed but punkish, thrashing bound of early 90’s Scandinavian death. Around that time the nearby equivalent would’ve been perhaps Vanhelgd and it was clear that these guys might’ve been green after just a few years at it but even then their work stood out. As much as I liked that debut it was the follow-up (‘Abhorrent Veneration‘, 2019) that’d truly impressed with its own thunderous sound, a unique guitar tone which was reminiscent of the old ways but tempered and given atmospheric heft for the dank kinda Finndeath-level moody ride n’ blast of that album, transcending the usual sound. It’d been well worthy of a high ranking I’d given in review and set these folks up there on my most anticipated follow-up list.

The pandemic and the forced interim resultant found Carnal Tomb releasing splits with Crematory Stench and Gravehammer which partially double-dipped into the songs found on two EPs which were essentially re-recordings of their 2014 demo ‘Ascend‘ plus the single ‘Festering Presence‘ (2021) and none of these releases seemed to directly hint at what the direction for ‘Embalmed in Decay‘ would be, but instead reinforced the connection between past material and their sound now. It’ll come as no surprise to anyone that the standard set by prior releases is not only upheld but generally surpassed on album number three but that doesn’t mean they’ve lost the most familiar aspects of their work thus far, once again working with the brilliant Tobias Engl (Englsound) but this time tasking Sverker Widgren (Wing Studios) with the master, both of whom coordinate a spacious upward thundering space which is intimidating from the start but allows the tank-like clangor of the bass guitar to growl unholy in front of the kit without being squashed under the guitar tone. The spatial relationship of instruments seems remarkably different than the previous record at first but what we’ve really gained is a crispness to the atmosphere which sounds amazing on a proper stereo and helps the creeped-out, pit hammered grind of this record avoid feeling distant or disconnected. Opener and thematic centerpiece “The Putridarium” carries us through this space, touring the cob-webbed crypts with a flaming axe’s worth of long-arc’d riffs and an almost technical touch of interplay at certain points ensuring that an above-average ‘new old school’ death metal album is unmistakably in process but not yet fully revealed.

Some of said technique is likewise featured on the representative “Cataclysmic Maze” per an opening bass guitar lead prog-death waltz before the main riff reveals its swinging verminous lunge, another sprawling tremolo-picked rolling rhythm which finds its point of attack around ~1:21 minutes into the piece where a sort of grind-and-thrash style of riff hits kinda big up front. This is foreshadowing for the crawling bound of this record as its intensity slowly flares up into more complexly stated pieces, for now the arrangement is simple yet effective enough to thrill the ears of any longtime underground death metal delver’s taste for stylized rhythms. The surprising thing is that Carnal Tomb keep this frenzy of shifting sands and thresher-whirring riffs going for the duration of Side A, leaning into the doomed lurch of their second record less often to start. The kinetic jaunt of said rhythms continue ’til the grooves of “Draped in Disgust” feeling more familiar as that post-‘Mental Funeral‘ spectrum of European death metal looms overhead but this shouldn’t suggest their songwriters have fallen back on anything less than the standard set herein, I’d argue that particular song might be one of the catchiest grooves they’ve written to date and not such a simple undertaking considering the amount of guitar layers in acting in concert to make it happen.

While the pace and count of riffs hasn’t quite approached a death-thrashing cult point of excess and there are fewer traces of doom abounding it does feel like a more focused and tuneful Carnal Tomb is absolutely worthy as we press beyond Side A and take stock of just how well that first half flows together into a kinetic ball of rotten, fuming energy. In passage to the second half “Cerebral Ingestion” continues this conversation with another mid-paced groove focused piece which finds it stunning point of abstraction and unique pacing around ~2:02 minutes into the piece, a sophisticated dance from molten points which is sheathed in grinding, hustling riffs that an Undergang fan would likewise appreciate. At this point the new vernacular, the verbose yet controlled melodic language of the band (mostly expressed through elastic-banded riff style) becomes a known quantity and threatens to read almost too simple in construction for my own taste despite many quick-changes entertaining on repeat listens.

This congestion of familiar modus finds at least some relief on one of my favorite pieces on the album, “Morgue Usurper”, a sort of classic Finndeath by way of ‘Necroticism: Descanting the Insalubrious‘ sort of moment where we hear the talent of the bassist breaking through alongside a host of new guitar techniques and effects we’d not yet been privy to as the first half of the album sparked away at its moshable exterior. Consider it a piece which almost appears written to show just how much Carnal Tomb‘s members can pack into one song in terms of technical, melodic, brutal, and yet still exactingly ‘old school’ in feeling moment. It isn’t exactly Crematory (Sweden) but there is at least some similar fire leading the way on this second half of the record where they seem intent on making it weirder, gorier as the energy of the record shifts to something darker and increasingly moshable such as the lost at sea tidal wave of the title track (“Embalmed in Decay“) near the end of the running order. For my own taste “Eyes of the Chasm” does a great job of rounding out the general character of the full listen by giving us more of the twisted riffs and broader-stroked grooves found on the album elsewhere and making a kicking and chunked-at piece work even when extended to nearly seven minutes.

While I’d missed the gloomy swamp-set crypts and doomed stratosphere of the previous album this third time around I couldn’t help but feel like Carnal Tomb succeeded in pushing their own ‘old school’ death metal dictated presets into a new (but not too new) realm. ‘Embalmed in Decay‘ is delivered as an uncompromised, generally solid riff album with fine production and several memorable songs but its real success is that it doesn’t step away from the weirding traditions of old, and instead builds upon those ideas with some tuneful but not superficial modern traits per atmosphere, technique and render/sound design. All aspects of this release are generally well-considered and result in an easily approached death metal album in the most classic sense, part of which is certainly owed to the intense cover artwork from Skaðvaldur who has outdone himself in depicting the rotten crypt of open-air decay which’d inspired this records horrified themes. If you’re expecting more than the best of the old ways from death metal there might still be some surprises in the rotten breath of these impressive folks’ work but this one is clearly aimed at gaining ground within the undying realm of ‘old school’ death metal rather than misshaping its current and this leads to a great listening experience and plenty of riffs above all else. A high recommendation.

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