Origin: Italy Release year: 2011 Label: Self-released Genre: Melodic Death Metal / Metalcore I know, I know. I’m taking my sweet goddamn time. The thing is, it’s not that I don’t want to review, it’s that I haven’t got the friggin’ time for it. Hardly catch enough sleep as it is.

But the positive side of this is that not having to – or rather, not being able to – review something means I can listen to music in a rather ‘unforced’ way again. And that’s exactly what I’ve been doing with the four-song EP called Evil is a Necessity by Italian Melodeath / Metalcore outfit Karnæ. I’ll have to admit straight away that it’s not majestic, or even brilliant. It’s not massively technical or mimicking the build-up of classical music. But what it definitely is, is enjoyable! Very much so.

Evil is a Necessity is Karnæ’s first ever endeavor, after forming in 2008, self-released somewhere in 2011.The band is taking the approach of a relatively slow pace combined with classic, catchy melodies, mixed clean and growl-screamed vocals and a high dose of energy. Not brutal by any means, but the band manage to compensate some of that by having taken their band pics inside a slaughterhouse with dead pig carcasses in the background. Sweet! Makes me hungry.

Lucifer in the Sky with Diamond is the EP’s opener and gives us chugging riffage that makes heads move. Some of the sections have a distinct hardcore feel, which is an element that I keep finding back throughout the album. If I’d have to directly compare them to another band, I’d go for another Italian underground formation that I’ve once seen live: Ingraved. Same type of balls-to-the-wall, we-don’t-take-shit-from-no-one attitude.

Skipping one, my favorite song on the EP is called Quiet Place. It starts all laid-back and soothing, with clean sounding guitars that do slow, let-ring string playing. There are deep clean vocals, provided by vocalist Simone, who does a good job all together, actually. The song slowly moves to more turbulent, sad waters, but never even gets near to a complete frenzy. It’s all contained, decent and polite. But the mood does change at some point, from sad to more ass-kicking and angry, with a bridge part that I just find finger-lickingly good, even after having listened to it for about a billion times now. I’ll serve it to you for sampling.

The EP’s last song is called Blood and suffers from a vampiric lust for blood and bloody violence. Faster than the other songs, and more aggressive. The aggression is mostly transmitted by the vocals, but the guitars and rhythm sections move up in activity as well. Thankfully the chorus provides plenty of stage for melodic leads.

Evil is a Necessity is quite an enjoyable EP all together and, what’s more, it stays that way even after having listened to it for quite a few times. It’s by no means virtuoso or getting close to the great names of modern Metal, but it is a surprising and enjoyable find in a Metallic landscape that is getting more and more bland.

My Grade: 7.5/10
Buy this when:

Tags: death, hardcore, Italian, melodeath, melodic, metalcore, review

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 30th, 2012 at 3:56 pm and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.