Published on May 26, 2006
If not for Interstate 4 allowing Orlando, Florida to
siphon off a couple of central Florida credits in spawning Tampa’s
heavy metal heroes Savatage and Iced Earth, the city would forever
be linked musically to sugary pop bands such as the Backyard Boys
and *NSync and vanilla rock groups like Creed and Seven Mary
Three.
This overlying thought contributed to my anticipation
of hearing the new self-produced and titled release from the
Central Florida metal band Carnevil. Anchored by the backline of
Anthony Lupo on drums and David Gibbons on bass guitar, the band
benefits from the fact that instrumentally four-fifths of the unit
has spent their high school years together playing as students at
Oviedo High School. New to the band is Carnevil’s vocalist, Chuck
Boyer, who impresses on this self-titled release by nailing the
vocals on the two covers the band performs — Alice in Chains’ “Man
In The Box” and Slayer’s “Seasons In The Abyss.”
While it’s easy to judge a band’s ability to perform
covers given the comparison targets, I find myself wanting to hear
the band speed up both of the song’s tempos because I think the
band is a tight enough unit to pull it off. I also have a feeling
that Boyer’s melodic penchant in his vocal delivery would benefit
from the challenge — or in this case — an infusion of aggression.
These two songs would also benefit from added flair and
personality.
Covers aside, though, the first Carnevil original,
“Stare,” utilizes a hypnotic Pantera-style loop that gives Boyer
the creative platform to showcase an intriguing vocal tenacity,
peaking with the line “just because you drive a big expensive car /
and you got those fancy clothes” before convincingly and menacingly
scowling that “it doesn’t give you the fucking right / to walk by
looking down your nose!” After repeated listens to this EP, I find
this line and complementing instrumentation to be crowning moments
in the emerging Carnevil listening experience.
While I mentioned Creed earlier and have never been a
fan of that band, I can’t help but draw a loose comparison to them
during the intro to “What You Did”, a Carnevil original which could
easily frame the line “a court is in session” from “My Own Prison.”
Fortunately for all of us, Boyer’s vocal range quells the thought
at the first change in instrumental pace. Additionally, “New For
Me” has guitarists Chris Behan and Nate Naymick mixing a power
metal approach with their axe work to several dashes of Boyer’s
death metal growling. Mixing the two metal stylings is where
Carnevil creatively shines the brightest.
All in all, Carnevil has the pieces in place to
become the next five-headed metal monster out of Central Florida,
with each of their original songs showcasing different styles and
arrangements. This is important as their penchant for variety has
me believing that this self-titled release will soon have folks
outside of Florida recognizing that the metal scene in the state
has new blood in its veins.
[For more information on the band, visit www.wearecarnevil.com]