ANNIHILATOR - CARNIVAL DIABLOS

IT'S A CARNIVAL ALRIGHT.

The 90's was lots of ups and downs for Annihilator and now in this new decade.

Original vocalist Randy Rampage has unfortunately left the band but Annihilator has been able to recruit Liege Lord's old vocalist Joe Comeau, an excellent choice if you ask me. Unfortunately he isn't allowed to show what he is capable of here, because his voice is drenched in these computerized sounds. He sounds more like Cher with this and it's just rediculous. Why would you want to erase the organic feel of someones voice? It makes no sense at all. Recruit someone who can sing if Joe Comeau's voice is gone. Yeah, I just don't understand this at all.

Why recruit a fantastic singer if you're going to do that to him? It makes no sense.

The production also has this modern and plastic feel to it. Just like the vocals the guitar tone seems completely muffled.

It's the so called Loudness Wars that were going on in the 90's and 2000's. It ruined metal and this record is a proof of that. There are outbursts of great guitar leads and riffs here and there but when it all sounds so bad and fabricated I just want to shut off this garbage. This was why albums like Alice in Hell was good because they didn't do shit like this back then.

The song Shallow Grave sticks out because it sounds a bit like AC/DC but there is nothing here that sounds particularly good.

To sum it all up, “Carnival diablos” leaves the bitter taste of modernity and they have gone down the Metallica route here by completely pissing on their own legacy.

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