Carbonized - For the Security

CARBONIZED - For the Security (THRASH Records - LP 1991)

Carbonized's "For the Security" has never been the most influential among the Swedish death metal albums from the early 90's. It is even slightly forgotten nowadays. But for me personally, it was one of the favourite records at the time, when as a kid I was discovering all these new death metal bands. I had a Polish bootleg cassette, which I really played intensely through the years. Carbonized had everything to get attention. They had some great demos and 7"EP (I didn’t know them back then, I do admit that), and Matti Karki did vocals for them! But Carbonized was mainly Lars Rosenberg's (Entombed) project and for "For the Security" he was joined by Piotr Wawrzeniuk and Christofer Johnsson, both from Therion. Well, Therion also belonged to my favourites back then haha. 

Line up and well known musicians aside, but another important reason why "For the Security" should get your attention is the music, as it's one of the most original and weird death metal releases from Sweden. As such, I could put it aside to such Pan-Thy-Monium, Afflicted or Therion, speaking of the unique and often progressive death metal. On one hand you'll hear here plenty of traditional death metal, with its brutality and heaviness. There's also a bit of insane grind core, full of rage, mad fast tempos and furious screams, which all erupt with huge energy. But here and there you will find almost jazz or psychedelic patterns, some weird ideas and arrangements that normally would not find its place on the extreme metal record. They sound bizarre, almost like someone was making a joke, as one minute you hear a pure death metal riff and next there's a twisted and uncanny piece that can make your eyebrow go up... There’re many surprising fragments, you could think that some of it doesn’t just fit together and someone made a mistake and took a song from a different band, but somehow there’s a method in this insanity. 

And with Christofer's screams over the music, the result is as interesting as it is mad. And as always with such musical experiments, there will be people, who will loath it and those, who will love it. For me, this bastard child of death metal, grindcore, Voivod and fuck knows what else, sounds absolutely brilliant. I love the production from Sunlight Studio, I love the intensity and energy of this music. And there are just many awesome riffs that kick ass brutally. Sometimes it’s close to the edge of insanity, “Third Eye” can be a good example here. Next on the list, “Purified (From the Sulfer)”, is another song that runs away from the death metal standards as much as it only can, delivering extreme forms of psycho-grinding avantgarde right in your face. But it works and I think that “For the Security” is a great album. Weird, but just great. Sadly, I simply hate the other two Carbonized albums, they are unlistenable and annoying. They are crap. But I still love the debut as well as the demos and 7”EP,  

Standout tracks: “Monument”, “Recarbonized”, “Blinded of the Veil”, “Reflections of the Dark” 

Verdict: 85/100