Carnage - Dark Recollections (1990)

Carnage, the creation of guitarist Michael Amott was initially formed in Stockholm, Sweden in 1989 as a Carcass styled grindcore band called Global Carnage, but after Dismember's temporary split-up, Fred Estby, Matti Karki and David Blomkuist joined up, the name was shortened to simply Carnage and it was full on Swedish Death Metal from there on.

Recorded in February of 1990, 'Dark Recollections' was the second true Swedish Death Metal album after Entombed's, 'Left Hand Path' and it was originally released as a split CD with, "Hallucinating Anxiety" by Cadaver from Norway and shortly thereafter Earache released it as a stand alone album.

Musically Dark Recollections was a fairly straight forward recording that pretty much emulated the style that Entombed introduced a few months earlier. Recorded as well with Tomas Skogsberg at Sunlight Studios the guitar tone is quite similar although actually a bit heavier overall, the bass is more audible, Matti uses a more guttural vocal delivery and the bands drive is nearly as stomping as Entombed yet something seems slightly off.

Overlooking the obvious similarities to Entombed, I think one of the albums weaknesses is that the riffs are just not nearly as dynamic and catchy and the relentless energy that Left Hand Path displayed is not nearly as present here. Four old Dismember demo songs were also re-recorded for this album and although they are quite good I've heard folks say that the original demos actually topple Carnage's re-recordings. Also there are some grindy parts to this record where the band just completely blasts away without any real point.

Of course if you throw all comparisons out the door or have never heard Left Hand Path then this record could easily be viewed as absolutely one of the best death metal records ever, but really in the end its probably safe to say that Carnage recorded this album prematurely. Perhaps had the band took another year to mature, tighten up and write some truly remarkable songs it could be a lot more than it truly is. Nevertheless it is quite good for what it is and although I haven't owned it very long its been an album I've grabbed and thrown on quite a bit during the past twelve months.

After this album Michael Amott received an offer to join Carcass and this quickly lead to Carnage's demise. It did on the other hand bring about the reunion of Dismember and I suppose we all know well that Dismember went on to record several massively classic Swedish Death Metal albums during the course of the 90's.

Chances are the original pressings of this are hard to come by and expensive too, but Earache re-released it in 2000 with a slightly different cover, remastered sound as well as the, 'Infestation of Evil' & 'The Day Man Lost' demos as bonuses, which was actually during the bands grindcore period, but its interesting to hear these earlier rarities, anyway.