Today my friends I have for company, the front-runners of the Death Metal scene in Madrid, Bonecarver have been a force to be reckoned with since 2014, formed after the demise of Cannibal Grandpa. The four horsemen are Fernando Del Villar on vocals, Ruben Contreras on drums, Alberto Bravo and Alex Tena on guitar, who ride the apocalyptical wave that is their latest creation. ‘Carnage Funeral’ and please be seated while we listen to this sermon, chapter, and verse.
Those of you expecting to be let off lightly, this doesn’t bode well, opening with the title track and accompanying visually goring video, the band combust onto your screens, complete with growly noises, muttering under the madness, of lives lost, devoured by the unnatural, the damned and the insane.
The scourge continues with ‘Ancient Atrocity’ germinating in your frazzled brain, reminiscent of Necrot, a lethal dose of something sinister, but you comply willingly. A green skinned God with purple eyes has dominion, watching over our inadequacies.
He’s a bit angry is our Fernando, gurgling and grunting madly before unleashing the classic, eldritch screeching that compels us all to change our settings to ‘Dani Filth’ mode.
‘Thorned’ gives us the tantalising words ‘my skin dries until it falls off by itself’ a putrid parchedness, exsiccation of epic proportions. Be afraid as the ‘Morgue Desecrator’ seeks to put the kibosh on all you knew that was unsullied and innocent.
‘Nothing seems to make sense on this upside-down world’ are the telling lines from ‘Horror Disorder’ the penultimate track on this contrarily convivial jaunt. We go over the finish line with ‘Bereavement’ an appropriate ending as we mourn the dead at a funeral, we fear the dread and carnage that their death may bring, or in fact celebrate the possibility of the carnage being buried with them. Is the final destination ‘a place with no clear end’ where you spiral in a continuum, enduring further distress and disharmony. There is a lesson here though, what goes around comes around, karma will leave you ‘ignored, dwarfed and forgotten’.
A gloriously gruesome outing, bathe in the incandescence, dastardly and devious in its intent and conveyance.
Press play and witness a dark carnage, and an evil funeral.
Azra Pathan
Bonecarver – Carnage Funeral out now via Unique Leader