Just a bit late, aren’t we? Truth to be told, I was not even aware of this album when I’ve started Indokult. Yes, that was 2021, the same year this great album was released.
That being said, in the case of Carnivored and their album “Labirin” the saying “better late than never” certainly rings true.
And so we are here listening to this interesting death metal offering from Tangerang. This time it’s not the quite usual slamming brutal death metal or “just” the ordinary brutal death metal Indonesian extreme metallers are known for, this is death metal proper.
And what music it is… it comes as no surprise, the quarted of musicians responsible for this fantastic album are not wet-behind-the-ears guys, these are seasoned musicians from with experience from bands like Ilp, Darksovls, Djin, Rotten Corpse, Vlaar, Disinfected, Disagree, Burgerkill and bunch other Indonesian bands, so you can bet your last dollar these guys know their stuff.
And it also shows.
At first I was quite worried, this album is a bit over 65 minutes long, and to keep the listener engaged for such a length of time…well, that might be quite a challenge.
Music on the album can indeed be described as death metal, although with quite surprising industrial vibe. I dig that. Varied and well thought of the songwriting, no two songs are the same, offering tribal melodies (“Sekutu Hitam”), groove vibe (Tunduk Raga) even the straightforward oldschool death metal number (“Terjerat Senyap”), even a metalcore now and than with the familiar choruses…the lot of relentless onslaught of guitar riffings, melodies and tempos changing, breaks – this album won’t let you go until the last second of it.
Apart from the musicianship, I immediately fell in love with the vocals of Radja Haba. Great vocalist!
All said and done, “Labirin” is definitely an album, although not a new one, but one you need to seek out to enjoy and appreciate. Like me.
