Band:	Carcariass
Album:	E-Xtinction
Style:	Technical death metal
Release date:	June 20, 2009
Guest review by:	White Winter Sun

01. Chaos And Decay
02. In Cold Blood
03. Domination
04. Exulting Pain
05. Revenger
06. Threshold To Madness
07. Dying Today
08. E-Xtinction
09. Chaos And Decay [instrumental version]
10. Domination [instrumental version]
11. Revenger [instrumental version]
12. Dying Today [instrumental version]
13. Void Attraction [instrumental version]

June 2009: the wait is finally over. Indeed, after seven years of silence since their latest release, entitled Killing process, French metallers Carcariass are back with their new album, E-Xtinction, which was released via Great Dane Records. For those of you whom are not familiar with the band, Carcariass plays technical death metal. E-Xtinction is the fourth full-length album from the band. It was recorded at Carcariass' private studios and was mixed by Stéphane Buriez (Loudblast).

Even though seven years have passed since the previous release from the band, the Carcariass' touch is easily recognizable from the first seconds of this new album. Once again, an important part of the band's sound is based on the forward of the bass (an appreciable point in death metal). Indeed, bass parts are clearly and particularly audible along the whole album. The guitar work is impressive and well executed too. It ranges from effective riffs to more complex ones and to great solos, giving the album a wide range of variations.

On the other hand, compared to the band's previous releases, E-Xtinction hosts more melodic parts but still remains extreme and full of aggressiveness. Together, this leads to pure masterpieces among tracks, containing catchy and groovy parts such as on "In Cold Blood" or on "Domination". The aggressive tracks are for example "Domination" and "Dying Today" with their insane drumming parts. The album reaches a climax with the monstrous "Threshold To Madness" which with its introduction, melodic parts and also an extreme side is a good overview of the band's approach on this album.

Finally, as the band's previous releases E-Xtinction pursues an approach which uses vocal parts in the background. E-Xtinction presents a pattern of eight songs, one with vocals, followed by one without and so on. Furthermore, the band reinforce this intended choice of vocals placed at a middle ground by adding the instrumental versions of the four songs containing vocals parts to the end of the album. Interestingly, these instrumental tracks work perfectly without those guttural interruptions. The melodies are all the more heightened and testify to the quality of the composition and their performance.

E-Xtinction (with its amazing cover artwork) is a solid album with its production strengthening the overall quality of it. Furthermore, the sound is powerful and very clear which reinforces the volume of the melodies. With such an album Carcariass probably deserves more attention in the metal scene (and I do not say that because they come from France...). So, now get your own opinion, put E-Xtinction into your CD player and enjoy this piece of technical death metal, you would not be disappointed for sure. Without any doubt, this album is one of my favourite death metal releases of the year 2009.