As their name suggests, Cephalic Carnage are a total headfuck. Several albums into their career, and CC really hit their stride even after the creative high point of ‘Lucid Interval’. On that, it was hard to tell what the hell they’d been freebasing, as the sudden switches between the all-out cyber-grind attacks and deeply horrible, snail’s-pace sludge were as unpredictable as they were amusing. Unlike most overtly technical bands that simply chuck in a token throwaway syncopated section by way of respite, CC actually walk the walk when proclaiming their Sabbath-worship, busting out some fine, loose, stoner grooves in amongst the hi-tech madness. It’s heartening to see a group of quite obviously talented musicians not feel the need to constantly up the extremity ante for the sake of it on a couple of the tracks here, which are pure low-BPM rock-outs. CC still hit new heights on ‘Anomalies’ when it comes to the slip ‘n’ slide from fast to slow and back again (and probably back again), with everything more fluid, more cohesive and more damn catchy.
In ‘Dying Will Be Death Of Me’ you have the absolute pinnacle of what bands like this are trying to achieve. Skittering, pulverising beats by one of the best drummers around, duelling guitars falling about each other in perfectly plucked spiralling leads, playful waltz-time riffing that slips into a total Meshuggah-style slam, about four different vocal styles including a blip of total cock-rock that is so, so wrong that it becomes so, so right. Incredible.