When Jason Tipton, owner of Willowtip Records, first told me he was releasing material by Cephalic Carnage, the first thing that came to mind wasn’t "Cool!" or "Awesome!", it was "Why?" Up until that point I’d been very much against the idea of even giving them a chance, considering how they reacted to previous reviews written about them in this fine publication. Granted, I didn’t write any of the reviews, but when they first came out I really wasn’t impressed, and I think a lot of that had to do with their glorification of marijuana and how cool it was to smoke dope. It wasn’t until one conversation with Jason when he recommended I actually listen to a couple of their songs that I stopped being so hard-headed and actually gave them a listen. The thing that surprised me the most about their music was that it was good. Really good. The album I started off with was 2000’s Exploiting Dysfunction, which is just a solid slab of chaotic deathgrind that’s catchy and pummelling, melodic and destructive. After hearing that I expected the mCD on Willowtip to be more of the same, however, I was greatly mistaken. As it turns out, Halls of Amenti, was the first in a series of recordings to display other aspects of the band’s influences and style, in this case, doom. I don’t claim to be the most knowledgeable person when it comes to doom, I honestly can’t even think of 10 doom bands off the top of my head, but I know when I’m being crushed by a pillowcase full of dumbbells when it comes crashing down on me, and this 22 minute recording is even heavier. The best way to describe just how heavy this album is to imagine a full grown pit-bull, placed under sedation, making it very drowsy and sluggish, neutering it and replacing it’s healthy sized balls that sag to the floor with the full-sized testicles of a full-grown bull. Now imagine this angry vicious beast flying out of nowhere and teabagging you with 30lbs of balls. It’s that fucking heavy. If you’re thinking about picking up this album, you must understand that it is nothing like Exploiting Dysfunction, Conforming To Abnormality or Lucid Interval, this is almost an entirely different band on it’s own, there’s no chaotic grind, no pummeling blast beats, no shrieks from places well below where the scrotum begins or ends, this is purely thick, chuggy, sludgy doom, and you know what? I like it. I really really like it. If there is one thing you should expect from Cephalic Carnage, it’s that no matter what they do, everything will just seem to sound right, no matter how fucked up it is. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go roll up some fat doobies using Cephalic Carnage ZigZags and play hackysack. Written By: Teufel