Soul Sacrifice – Carpe Mortem.

It has been a world tour for the last few albums i have reviewed. Italian thrash metal, Slovenian folk metal and the latest is melodic death metal from Turkish band Soul Sacrifice. Their 2nd full length studio album, Carpe Mortem ( seize death ), was released via Massacre Records on June 29th 2012 and is an absolute monster! Formed in 1997, the current line up has been together since 2003, releasing their debut album Stranded Hate in 2005.

Production duties on Carpe Mortem are by Dan Swano and he has made them sound huge. The guitar tone has it’s roots in Swedish death metal, bringing to mind Entombed, In Flames and Face Down. The vocals of Ozgur Ozkan are a mix of death metal crossed with James Hetfield as he rages over 11 tracks of  controlled ferocity. Keyboards have been used to complement some of the songs to great affect. Not too overpowering but there to thicken the overall sound.

Over it’s 47 minutes, Carpe Mortem has many highlights. Bullet Proof opens with thick, mauling riffs with melodic leads and sweeping keyboards. Keys are used again for light and shade over the pummeling riffs and drums on Comatose. The Dragonforce  shredding opening of O.L.B as frenetic kick drumming is swamped by huge riffs. Fly Forever is a cover of the Pentagram classic but Soul Sacrifice have made it a lot heavier as the guitars crunch throughout. Killing For Society contains the heaviest vocal on Carpe Mortem and also the most relentless riffing! Sarcastic Existence, although having the same title as the Sepultura song, is not a cover but has killer, shifting rhythms with  traditional Turkish music midway but the album highlight for me is the title track, Carpe Mortem. It is the simplest song on the album, at only 2.30 minutes long, it consists of loose guitar chords and feedback over a time sequence on an electrocardiogram. The song ends as the machine flatlines.

Soul Sacrifice band line up :-

Ozgur Ozkan – Bass guitar/vocals.

Feyzi Ocak – Lead guitar.

Onur Akca – Drums.

Maksim Kirikoglu – Lead guitar.

Carpe Mortem track listing :-

Requiem.

Bullet Proof.

Comatose.

O.L.B

Keske.

Fly Forever ( Pentagram cover ).

Killing For Society.

Torture My Soul.

Carpe Mortem.

Sarcastic Existence.

Exile.

I award Carpe Mortem  a Turkish delightful 10/10! m/