Five tombs filled in just under a half-hour the return of Melbourne, Australia-based death/doom metal band Carcinoid is as morbid and true ‘old school’ spirited as one might’ve expected up front, though some ears’ll be surprised to find the grotesque menace of their not-so distant past now ringing of moshable grooves and a far more polished sound as their skeletal hand reaches for increasingly surreal affect. ‘Encomium to Extinction‘ feels like more than one toe dipped into deeper atmospheric reaches and sub-genre bending interest alike as elements of sludge/doom and catchier grinding grooves begin to warm their otherwise cold and uncalculated aggression.

Formed circa 2018 and ready with a brutal, clangorous and graveyard squelching death/doom metal demo tape (‘2018 Demo‘, 2018) the sound of Carcinoid‘s initial gear up is still a thing of horrified beauty thanks to its basement level rattle on the bass guitar, sparked up with a notch of distortion and an absolutely solid grip of the doom metal riff at all potential speeds. Fans of Coffins, Cianide and modern interpretations a la Fetid would do well to check that tape out before their sound would take a distinct turn on their Memento Mori released debut LP (‘Metastatic Declination‘, 2019) where they’d gone from the basement to to garage for one of the better approximations of that circa ’94 ‘A Descent Into Hell‘ sort of death-doomed sound and you could hear the classics directly informing their raw and bruised-out riffcraft throughout, it was a hell of a choice for a stylized debut and I remember giving it a middling but positive score back in 2019. Is that what we’re in for here in the post-apocalyptic age of no riffs?

DEEPER LISTENING [x]

Cianide: A staple of Chicago death metal and one of the best (or, most consistent) examples of Celtic Frost‘s inspiration in feeding both doom and thrash metal into death metal’s oeuvre. Many bands have been built as shrines to their first two records ‘The Dying Truth‘ (1992) and ‘A Descent in Hell‘ (1994). The Netherlands late 80’s-early 90’s death/doom metal scenery did it first, technically speaking.

Undergang: Listen to “Mired in Decay” on this EP and tell me they aren’t smoking similar gunk over in Denmark these days.

Ilsa: A Washington D.C.-borne sludge metal band who’ve never quite caught on with the pure death metal or death/doom metal crowd despite being much better at death metal than they are at atmospheric sludge. Consider their sound where Eyehategod, Winter, and blackened crust meet up.

Without any certainty of Carcinoid‘s line-up for this release I can with some confidence suggest that they sound like an entirely different band on ‘Encomium to Extinction‘ and I’m sure much of that has to do with its atmosphere enriched and dare I say professional sounding warmed-over production values. Still a dirt-spitting ‘old school’ death metal band in style these folks now take a clear step from the garage into a sealed studio space, setting the guitar tone widened to the corners of the space in full surround while the bass guitar tone rescinds almost behind the drumkit which is satisfyingly crisp and present in its high-throned chair.

No longer so easily pinned-down as something Cianide-esque here we’ve got more of a mid-paced but still entirely doomed death metal sound which fans of Coffins will still appreciate though there are some chugging-hot and speedier pieces which work up a sweat (see: “Morbid Curse”) and hit as if they were pulled from the circa ’92 death metal underground in the United States nearby Ohio, New York or in between without sounding head to toe dead serious. If anything that particular song had an ass-shaking sludge metal sound as it drained off into the distance, bump over to the ringing feedback and rasping doom of ~3:45 minutes into “Morbid Curse” and right there you’ll find a bit of unexpected freakery from these folks after the rest of the mLP kinda kept a straight face. It may just as well be the best song they’ve put out to date though it might land as a bit of a shock to the purist.

If that crossover of demented doom-a-swinging movement isn’t weirding enough the grinding blasts of “Strangulation” push that idea to a different extreme, again taking another full bodied lunge out of traditional death metal murder for the sake of a surreal and noisome escape which isn’t as successful as “Morbid Curse” but shows how far they could potentially push those bounds on an LP and create something with enough interest to match their classic underground death metal core; Though I’d felt this record lost the ultra-specific niche feeling of their debut LP if one sits with ‘Encomium to Extinction‘ for a few spins you’ll find most of the characteristics are still there just executed in higher fidelity. Opener “Led to the Worms” makes that clear enough with its shambling-hard riffcraft and the blood filled lungs of their impressive vocalist. Overall they’ve made some admirable gains here and pulled of a ~29 minute record that feels as substantive and packed with interest enough to serve as a follow-up to their debut record. A moderately high recommendation.

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