Karnak - Dismemberment

\r\n Ιtalian death metal has picked up pace the last few years, wether it’s modern, brutal, or even more classic, the bar has been raised a lot! With bands like Hour Of Penance, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Vomit The Soul and Septycal Gorge being quality representatives the italians can be proud of some really worthy acts. The addition of Karnak to the bunch is mandatory, although their discography is moving rather slow(3 full lengths in 13 years), as their manage to draw attention with their freshest release called "Dismemberment". They still don’t avoid a few "buts" though..
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\r\n You will easily find yourself being impressed by individual work, especially on the ultra deep growls of Fransesco, that brought the swedish Dominion(you’de better check’em out!) to mind. Heavy and thick, they dominate aural space and bring strength to the italians’ tunes. Karnak cherish the composing philosophy of Morbid Angel. They put out sickness and morbid vibes. They don’t focus only on sheer brutality but rather add this old school "evil" riffing to Suffocation’s crushing heaviness to come up with their own personal sound. I find lots of interesting stuff in "Dismemberment", what other bands lack, trying to complicate songs with technicality and missing all the feeling, the essense of song writing.
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\r\n About what bothered me: the album has 19 songs in total, half of which are symphonic(keyboard, not natural organs) shots, placed in between the main songs. Perhaps they did this to balance things, not to pulverize the listener but relentless distortion. But the arrangement and the sound of it is terrible. Not as massive as  they should be, not as flatus. Maybe if those parts were less in munber the result would be a bit more focused, but having 19 songs with half of them only serve as links is unnecessary, the least to say.
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\r\n On with the negatives, and this is just me being a bitch once more: the logo and artwork is unacceptable. I find the music of Karnak way too good to be wrapped in such a bad layout. The visual representation of the album is simply not match to its content.
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\r\n To sum up, "Dismemberment" is worth the trouble. It is quality music, with lots of brutality combined with the correct atmosphere, no keyboards just plain good ol’ sickness. If you’re not bothered by the duration and and the bad packaging this is recomendation.\r\n

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\r\nGiannis rem3dy Nakos\r\n

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\r\nhttp://www.myspace.com/karnakmusic \r\n

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