Tasting Notes Reviews

How often do you stop and find yourself thinking “I wish there was more music written about historic serial killers”? Well, fear not, as Carrion Vael are on hand to serve you up a veritable feast of suspicious looking meat in the form of their latest album ‘Slay Utterly’.

Stopping off at the local abattoir to learn a few tricks from Cattle Decapitation, the Richmond lads aren’t messing around when it comes to separating your face from your skull (who needs boning knives when you’ve got riffs this sharp). If you can see past the track names that have more numbers in their titles than a blood stained Yellow Pages, then you will find yourself basking in the majesty of some damn fine Melodic Death Metal.

From the chugging, neck breaking riffs of ‘19 (fucking) 78’, to the technicality of the drums and guitars in ‘Bisection47’, this is a record that desperately wants you to pay attention, and at only 42 minutes there isn’t time for your thoughts to drift far before being violently dragged back to their fetid basement.

They are by no means a one trick pony either, allowing the listener brief moments of respite such as the Spanish guitar intro of‘Truth Or Consequences’ or the classical piano and orchestral arrangements on ‘Lord of 74’ (I told you there were a lot of numbers!)….proving that there is, in fact, no darkness to be found without at least a tiny slither of light. Special mention must be made to Travis Lawson Purcell who has the versatility of a Swiss Army Knife when it comes to vocal performance, managing to flip between guttural intensity, powerful high-register balladry (yes, it’s a word!) and even some black metal shrieking thrown in for good measure.

If you like your death metal on the more stylised side of things (and served up in a bowl made of human skull),then you can’t go far wrong with the 5th release from Carrion Vael…just be sure to bring a change of clothes.

Best Paired With–A bottle of sulfuric acid, a bathtub full of offal and a shovel.

Review by Bryn.

Out via Unique Leader Records on 16/01/2026.