CARNIVORA – Judas

Carnivora is a new Norwegian band that started as a solo project by guitarist Tore Moren in 1999. After making some demos and getting the band members together, the recordings finally started in 2002.

JUDAS is indeed an exciting album. They mix up a lot of good ole 1980s mainstream Heavy Metal with more contemporary Metal and harder guitar riffs, and you’ve got to just love when bands do that!

This album has a very “live” sound to it, but at the same time you could get by with playing Carnivora as background music at home in almost any setting (well, maybe not when you’re having your in-laws over for dinner?!).

Singer Michael Eriksen has a really good voice, even though he needs to focus on his pronunciation more so to hit it big outside of Norway. Hey Michael, it’s not pronounced “traveLED” just because it’s written that way! His voice resembles Tony Harnell (TNT) and Joey Tempest (Europe), especially when they’re hitting their high notes.

Guest artists on this album are: Nils K. Rue (Pagan’s Mind), who sings on “State Of Fear And Hate,” and Ronni Le Tekrø (TNT), who plays guitars on “Soaring On.”

Carnivora has a great guitar player of their own, but bringing in Ronni Le Tekrø for “Soaring On” was a pure stroke of genius! Of course, any Ronni Le Tekrø fan can pick him out of this crowd (but didn’t he play the same thing during his instrumental at the TNT concert at Rockefeller, Oslo in March?)!

Drummer Hellhammer (known from Mayhem) does a great job on all tracks except for the one where he really had his chance to show off, namely the instrumental song “Instrubrutal.” Doubtfully intentional, but his performance on this song makes you think of someone playing circus drums! Hopefully Hellhammer had a hell of a time playing as funny as it sounds!

This album has 10 tracks, and at least half of the songs really stand out. The title track “Judas,” “Soaring On,” “Where Innocence End,” “State Of Fear And Hate,” and “I’m The Light” are very much 2004 Heavy Metal songs, with slow, tenacious guitars and scary, dubbed singing. The lyrics are generally good, but lyrics like “I’ve seen the twinkle of the stars” belong in a Nursery rhyme, and not in a Heavy Metal song.

In the end, this is probably not a “must have CD,” but the band is still well worth listening to … and maybe even better to see live!