Artist: Carnivore Title: “Retaliation” (remaster) Label: Roadrunner Records Release Date: 1/23/2001 Genre: Heavy Metal Rating: 3.5/5
Brooklyn’s own Carnivore returned with their second album “Retaliation” in 1987 and while it once again found Peter Steele at the helm along with drummer Louis Beateaux, by this time guitarist Keith Alexander had moved on and been replaced by Marc Piovanetti (a musician who also had an association with Hardcore Metal band The Crumsuckers). The change in guitarist was not the only change for the band at this time for instead of the more traditional based Heavy Metal sound, there was now a faster and more intense level of aggression that was more along the lines of Hardcore Punk mixed with Speed Metal. Steele is found to be as angry as Hell on a majority of the tracks on the album and perhaps the album’s opening sounds on “Jack Daniels and Pizza” was what set him off on his tirades. I could have done without the recording of the bassist vomiting but it certainly helps to demonstrate the dark level of humor and profanity the band was so good at. The tracks on “Retaliation” cover a wide variety of topics such as religious intolerance during “Angry Neurotic Catholics” and racial disharmony during “Race War”. One would think that the singer is acting out his own ignorance but when you read the scathing lyrical content it seems clear that he is speaking instead from the mindset of someone both racially and religiously closed as opposed to being open about his own views. Continue reading “Retaliation” (remaster) by Carnivore→
Artist: Carnivore Title: “Carnivore” (remaster) Label: Roadrunner Records Release Date: 1/23/2001 Genre: Heavy Metal Rating: 4/5
“Carnivore” was the self-titled debut release by the band of the same name, and they were a group fronted by Peter Steele in the years before he formed Type-O-Negative. Their inception came shortly after the breakup of Steele’s previous band Fallout and the album was initially released on vinyl in 1986. This particular Thrash Metal band approached their audience garbed as barbarians from a Post-Apocalyptic world of the future that had been laid waste by the fires of nuclear conflict. Their lyrical content was quite scatological at times and even somewhat misogynistic with their overall subject matter dealing with the hunting and killing of the remaining humans or bringing death to those unworthy of existence in this new violent terrain. It’s pretty heavy stuff for the time but when you look at what they were doing in the genre as far as musical composition and the delivery of a memorable image they were very effective. Then referred to as Lord Petrus T. Steele, the imposing 6’6” stature of the singing bassist made those who witnessed the band in person cringe for fear of incurring his wrath. Guitars were deftly handled by Keith Alexander and drums were Louis Beateaux and if you had to think of the musical lines that they fell closely against I would say it was a blend of what Thrash was building up to be and some cool traditional stuff. The album begins with the track “Predator” but based on the way that the second track begins I felt it would have been the better album opener. “Carnivore” leads in with Steele speaking to the listener directly as he growls “Greetings and Felicitations Children Of Technology” before the track takes you deeper into the bands cannibalistic premise. Continue reading “Carnivore” (remaster) by Carnivore→
Artist: Carnivore Venue: B.B. King Blues Club (New York, NY) Opener: unknown Date: 9/6/2006 Label: Independent
In the days before he formed Type-O-Negative, Peter Steele was the leader of the Post-Apocalyptic Barbarians known as Carnivore. It was a band that was as brutal in sound as they were in appearance and their shows back in the Metal heyday of 1985 were described as being among the craziest to ever witness. The group was often clad in animal skins and various armor implements during their shows and at times, they even brandished weapons as well as their guitars. They would incite their fans into frenzy by throwing raw meat into the audience and even drench them with real blood (and this was not the water paint that Gwar would come to use). It was safe to assume if you attended a Carnivore show that you would remember it for a very long time. Releasing two albums on Roadrunner Records (“Carnivore” and “Retaliation” ) the band was ahead of its time with some of the most intense and brutal Thrash Metal to be heard – musically it was a mix of Thrash with Hardcore Punk meets the NWOBHM styled music you were finding at the time. The bands music was powerful and at the same time incendiary, as songs like “Angry Neurotic Catholics” and “Jesus Hitler” played upon peoples religious, political views while “Ground Zero Brooklyn”, and “Armageddon” warned of life after the Big One goes off. Continue reading Carnivore @ B.B. King Blues Club (9/6/2006)→
