Bonecarver are two for two naming their band’s incarnations. Cannibal Grandpa was the Spanish band’s amusing, eyebrow-raising name for their deathcore outfit; now the four-piece wear the fierce moniker Bonecarver to suggest their strain of progressive symphonic blackened deathcore-slash-metal is no joking matter. And they’re right: their sophomore outing Carnage Funeral is a monster.
Carnage Funeral clocks in at thirty-nine minutes. It avoids the flaw of a fatiguing runtime to which many extreme metal albums fall prey. Bonecarver craft an album conscious of their audience’s attention span, the genre’s shift away from immature lyrics and themes (see also: Dr. Acula’s 2022 self-titled glow-up), and the perennial need for bangin’ riffs.
Any symphonic album should open with an epic, and Bonecarver oblige. ‘Carnage Funeral’ runs almost seven minutes long and gives a taste of nearly everything that the album will throw at the listener in the next forty minutes.
“Bonecarver craft an album conscious of their audience’s attention span”
Will Ramos may be the most prominent frontperson in deathcore these days, but Fernando Del Villar’s evil vocals challenge anything the Lorna Shore vocalist can fry up. ‘Ancient Atrocity’ tells the tale of an adventurer searching an ancient monolith, only to be consumed by their own greed in the end. Del Villar underlines the evils of desire unchecked with blackened buzzsaw vocals and beastly lows.
Track three, ‘The Reckoning,’ reckons with the symphonic aspect of Bonecarver’s sound by slipping a perfect orchestral break into the song. Bonecarver claim to be a death metal group, and they are, at least until ‘Thorned’ comes around. Their flesh-eating deathcore ancestor possesses them once again for one of the year’s heaviest breakdowns.
Halfway through the album, the formula wears a little threadbare, so their grandpa, still unsated, comes back for seconds with a slow-motion breakdown in ‘Pillars of Tragedy.’ This sonic switch-up grasps any wandering attention and drags it back. ‘Morgue Desecrator’ houses the album’s best solo, but besides the excellent symphonic opening, is the weakest track on the album. That this is the low point serves to emphasize the overall excellence of Carnage Funeral.
“Bonecarver's flesh-eating deathcore ancestor possesses them once again for one of the year’s heaviest breakdowns. ”
‘The Red Wake’ hands out some nice tempo and rhythms tricks, but the final two tracks are the real treats of the last quarter of Carnage Funeral. ‘Horror Disorder’ proves what the listener suspects all along: with a huge blegh from Del Villar, Bonecarver cannot completely escape their deathcore impulses. This penultimate track also shows the group is tighter than a Chicago overcoat.
The final track is ‘Bereavement’, which is how it feels when this album-of-the-year candidate finally comes to a close. Taking a page from the playbook of death metal brethren Ingested, Bonecarver layer lovely female vocals over heavy metallic riffing. It’s always a delight when a band wrap up an album with a song that feels like a closer, and Bonecarver oblige with an epic epilogue to match their epic prologue. Carnage Funeral is a magnificent album. Album title aside, here’s to hoping their carnage lives for many years to come.