Car Bomb

Mordial

If you want some hardcore metal that is different from what you have normally heard, well Car Bomb is the band for you. Car Bomb was formed in 2002 and they currently have 5 albums out. The genre of Car Bomb is labeled on rateyourmusic.com as Mathcore, which means that this is a band that uses unconventional time signatures and weird/odd melodies. I was really not expecting this type of sound from this band. From album covers alone you would say Car Bomb is an alternative band but nope, you’d be wrong. There lasted album released in 2019 titled Mordial. Here is a link to the playlist on Youtube where you can listen to the entire album.

I truly wasn’t expecting the sound that came through my headphones. The first song titled Start opens with a spooky organ-ish sound that just makes ur skin crawl and its great. The next song on the album titled Fade Out is where the deathcore comes out in the band and reminds me of another band named Gojira. If you really like Gojira then listen to Fade out by Car Bomb. Lead vocalist of Car Bomb (Michael Dafferner) brings the heavy vocals out in songs such as Vague Skies, Mordinal, and Blackened Battery. Those three songs in particular are my absolute favorite songs off of this album.

Vague Skies is definitely my favorite song on this entire album because it reminds me of so many of my favorite bands. Some parts like the ending of the song for example remind me of the band Hell Yeah where as the middle of the song reminds me of Gojira. It’s incredible that this one band can sounds so similar and bring me to think of other great bands like Hell Yeah. Not only that but the lyrical word choice really makes the song even more meaningful and intimate for the listener.

“Bury all the desperate

Dig it up, dig it up, dig it up

Pointing out the contradiction, juxtapose

Search in yourself for the last time

I’m with you under vague skies”

Just reading that small portion of the lyrics you can tell that the band spent a long time deciding what lyrics they wanted in each song. This specific portion of the song just spoke to me and that is what music should do, it should speak to the listener and make them feel something. Car Bomb has succeeded in the effort to make me want to listen and have their albums on repeat.

The problems I have with this album in my opinion are substantial. The transitions through most of the songs I just hated. I really enjoyed the music I did, but some other transitions between verses and the bridge of songs just really didn’t work for me. It to me seemed mis leading to the next line and I noticed it on more then one song. Another issue I had was I get that it isn’t traditional deathcore and I knew that going into it before listening to the album. But after listing to it over and over again for this review I have noticed that songs like Scattered Sprites just its missing that strong lyrical presence and rhythm in the music. This song in particular really flopped on that note because the rhythm and lyrics in the song just are not that impressive or entertaining. Scattered Sprites is the worst song off the entire Mordial album.

Overall on a scale of one to five I would give this album as a whole a three because it was a good album but the flaws in this album are extremely clear and can’t go unnoticed. I recommend Car Bomb if you are looking for something unconventional and different from the mainstream. Check out songs like Dissect Yourself and Antipatterns as well, just to get a taste of this band. I hope this band continues to improve and make this against the grain form of deathcore.