Year: 2024
Label: Krypta Records
Finnish The Carnival are true eccentrics within the realm of extreme/underground music. Granted, it’s no news to anyone that first wave black metal was heavily influenced by punk rock. And later on, plenty of crust acts have borrowed stuff back into punk from extreme metal.
But to do it to the extent and in the way which these Finns do… that’s not something you hear every day. It’s seldom you come across an album where you can earnestly say it’s just as likely to appeal to a black metal crowd as it is to a punk crowd. But this one – this one is it.
Throw early Darkthrone’s most Celtic Frost moments, Finnish hardcore legends Terveet Kädet and a dollop of classic crust into the mix, and you may end up with Absoluuttinen syntymä. It’s an album that leans in all these directions, and still manages to sound coherent.
A perfect example of The Carnival at their most Darkthrone-esque is Kivun lahjoittaja: a viciously riffing mid-tempo romp that sounds just like early-to-mid-nineties’ Darkthrone putting together some classic Celtic Frost/Hellhammer riffs. Imagine Läjä Äijälä of Terveet Kädet grunting on top of this, and you’re starting to get the idea. On the other hand, the title track shows the more crust side of the album, with a heavy handed Doom-like rhythm section and straightforward yet chaotic riffing – except for the lurching end, which somewhat reminds me of newer Darkthrone. But better.
But there’s a lot of space between these two poles. Take a track like Viheliäs metsä: slow, heavy hardcore riffing over which gruff and coarse grunts layer the lyrics, with weird electronic effects emanating from the background. It’s not Darkthrone, not Terveet Kädet, but The Carnival: something entirely their own. And torturous in its slow paced heaviness.
The true oddity of the album is Lettolapsi, which eschews the black punk of the rest of the album in favour of ethereal, gnomish folk. Or something to that effect. Flutes replace guitars, there’s a ritualistic rhythm to the sparse percussion, and the vocals lose their rabid edge. It’s certainly a weird outlier on the album. And honestly, I’m not sure the album is better off for it.
But be that as it may, Absoluuttinen syntymä is a solid piece of underground weirdness. Its building blocks may be tried and true, but the way The Carnival combine them is quite original. The band may come from hardcore roots, but on Absoluuttinen syntymä, which also marks the band’s 25th anniversary, they’ve truly rooted themselves in a weird no man’s land between extreme metal and punk.
And long may they stay there, if this is what it results in.
Only Death Is Real 