Cephalic Carnage has always struck me as being a competent technical death metal band combining spastic chaotic riffs with classic grindspank’n’heavy riffing. A recipe for success, some might claim, and cephalic carnage has indeed built up a fan base worth mentioning by mixing above mentioned ingredients. In line with Cephalic Carnage’s back catalogue, their new album ‘Xenosapien’ still imprints on me a mixture of enjoyment… and annoyance.

Due to a short and low-decibel intro, the first track ‘Endless cycle of Violence’ exploded out of my speakers and I was pleasantly terrified. This track definitely has the gravity needed to make listenable death metal, without it being cheesy. Nice!, I think, groovy guitar sound, the pace is nice, the vocals are guttural enough to belong to a pissed off werewolf.

The good impression lasted exactly to the second song, though, where the spastic side of Cephalic Carnage must have kicked in. No offense, it’s technical as hell, but it’s just doesn’t sound so good to me personally. I’d love to have these guys uphold a somewhat groovy atmosphere all the way through the album, but the ‘hit all notes possible within 10 seconds’-idea just interrupts the flow for me.

I’d recommend this in a heartbeat for people into Dillinger Escape Plan and chaotic grindcore in general – maybe even Nile, it has some of that in it too actually. But this will only pop up on shuffle when I take my ipod for a run.