Review: Carrion Spring - A Short History of Decay

Artist: Carrion Spring
Title: A Short History of Decay
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: Couldn't find one, probably unsigned.
Genre: Screamo
Rating: 88 / 100

Already since the age of twelve I've been listening to "heavy" music, making it possible for me to say I have heard almost all kinds of music in this very widespread genre. There's only one thing I have always tried to avoid, and that's screamo. Of course this avoidance was based on nothing but prejudices, the (occasionally appearing) haircuts, the connections with that whole "emo" movement, I just tried to avoid it as much as possible. Too bad, because my experiences with Portland based screamo band Carrion Spring were quite positive to be fair. So even 'though Carrion Spring is a fairly unknown band (fortunately they're finally getting some well-deserved attention now), they were my first experience with this genre.

For those who have, just like me until a few days ago, absolutely no clue what this kind of music is all about, I will try to explain it in a few sentences, from the outsider's point of view. Carrion Spring plays a kind of music, laying somewhere between the sounds of modern hardcore, post-metal, emo and metalcore. Overall the sound is quite heavy, but still retains some of the melodic elements that make a genre like metalcore so attractive. The balance between sheer brutality and melody is what one might know from bands like Cult of Luna and Isis, even 'though the dynamics within the songs are very different.

One of the points that really stand out on this album is the great attention they pay to songwriting, every individual song on this album is again and again very different from the previous and the next, making A Short History of Decay very attractive to listen multiple times to. While writing this review I give this album already its fourth spin, and still absolutely not a sigle sign of boredom. Another point giving this album just that little bit extra is the unity the 12 songs reflect, the 5 instrumental intermezzos (Selah I-V) make this album sound like one single composition, and while doing so, create a certain amount of atmosphere, something -core albums normally really miss in my opinion. On their own each instrumental is fairly boring, and really not worth listening to, but in the context of the whole album they really contribute to its humble awes0meness.

Carrion Spring is from now on responsible for introducing me to the genre of screamo, and even 'though I approached this album with a bit of suspicion at first, it was a very welcome introduction that will for sure be continued into a further exploration of the genre.

New clothes rarely smell like daisies,

Selwin.