Death metal has always understood the power of a name. Carrion: the decaying, putrefying flesh of a dead animal, which anchors the band immediately in the visceral with the grim and Vael, a stylized corruption of both "veil" and "vale," conjures a valley of death shrouded in darkness, a conceptual space of rot and ruin where the light doesn't reach. Together they form something more than a band name, they form a world, and it's one that the Richmond, Indiana five-piece have spent nearly a decade populating with some of extreme metal's most unflinching storytelling. Rooted in true crime history and fixated on the psychology of serial killers and their victims, Carrion Vael has built an identity as distinctive as it is disturbing. Since dropping Resurrection of the Doomed in 2017, they have delivered muscular, technical melodic death metal every other year with clockwork consistency. In a genre where many bands either burn out fast or drift into self-parody, Carrion Vael have done something rarer: they've sharpened their identity with each release, growing more focused and more ferocious in equal measure.
Their sound is a deliberately engineered fusion of melodic death and thrash at its core, reinforced by traditional and old school death metal foundations, with flashes of slam and razor-precise technicality pushing the edges outward. It's a wide palette, and the band wields it with genuine mastery. Slay Utterly, their fifth full-length, is the most complete expression of that vision to date. Though not explicitly billed as a concept album, Slay Utterly delves deep into morbid and macabre territory. Each track homes in on a different chapter of true crime history, drawing from some of the most notorious killers and mass murderers the world has known. Songs shift perspectives between perpetrators and victims, creating an unsettling push and pull that runs throughout the record. This isn't shock value deployed for its own sake; there's an almost journalistic commitment to portraying these events with grim authenticity, treating the subject matter with a seriousness that elevates it above typical death metal gore worship.
The clean and harsh vocal trade-offs throughout serve as a clever structural nod to that killer/victim duality, giving the storytelling a dramatic, almost theatrical dimension that goes well beyond pure aggression. The record captures the band at their most vicious and refined. Blistering riffs, punishing rhythms, and sharp lead guitar work propel the album forward relentlessly, while the vocal performances ensure the impact lingers long after the final track fades. The influence of old school death metal runs deep throughout; there's a grit and directness here that keeps the technical elements grounded rather than sterile or overly clinical. The occasional slam-influenced passages land like a freight train, breaking up the technical flurry with brute, crushing force before the band pivots back into melodic precision without missing a beat.
Though ferocity lies at its core, Slay Utterly is meticulously constructed, revealing layers of nuance beneath its brutality, the more you return to it. Those who grew up on The Black Dahlia Murder's violent onslaught or Allegaeon's melodic agility will recognise the DNA immediately, while the atmospheric weight of Rivers of Nihil and the surgical brutality of Hideous Divinity are equally present in the band's makeup. Travis Lawson is an absolute force behind the microphone. His high shrieks are among the best the genre has to offer, piercing, precise, and utterly unhinged, while his low growls carry genuine menace without sacrificing clarity. What sets him apart, however, is the clean singing. Rather than feeling like a concession to accessibility, his melodic passages feel earned and purposeful, adding an eerie emotional contrast to the chaos that surrounds them.
Ryan Kuder and Steven Bacakos form a formidable dual-guitar assault, their riff writing carrying the death/thrash DNA of the band's influences, driving, angular, and loaded with momentum, while their lead work soars with melodic ambition. Solos are deployed with purpose rather than excess, and the interplay between the two guitarists gives the record a layered quality that rewards close listening. Understated symphonic elements occasionally surface, adding a grandiose texture to certain passages without ever overwhelming the brutality at the album's heart. Al Arford's bass work underpins the low end with authority, though the dense mix occasionally buries his contributions beneath the guitar assault. Matt Behner drives the whole machine with relentless precision, shifting between blast beats, groove-heavy patterns, and technically demanding fills with the kind of controlled aggression the songs demand.
Highlight moments are plentiful across the album's 42 minutes. Opening track "19(fucking)78" wastes no time, immediately placing listeners inside the cloud of terror cast by the Hillside Stranglers in 1970s California, in a melodic, fast, technical, and immediately memorable, it's a statement of intent that the rest of the record lives up to. "Bisection 47" confronts the unsolved Black Dahlia murder and ranks among the most harrowing entries on the record, balancing brutality with an almost mournful melodic undercurrent. The six-plus-minute "Lord of 74" is the album's most ambitious moment, a sprawling, relentless track that attempts to compress an entire album's worth of ideas into a single song. It shouldn't work as well as it does, but the sheer musical energy holds it together. Closing track "Black Chariot," a re-recorded fan favorite, ties everything together with renewed ferocity, sending the listener out on a high.
Highlight moments are plentiful across the album's 42 minutes. Opening track "19(fucking)78" wastes no time, immediately placing listeners inside the cloud of terror cast by the Hillside Stranglers in 1970s California, in a melodic, fast, technical, and immediately memorable, it's a statement of intent that the rest of the record lives up to. "Bisection 47" confronts the unsolved Black Dahlia murder and ranks among the most harrowing entries on the record, balancing brutality with an almost mournful melodic undercurrent. The six-plus-minute "Lord of 74" is the album's most ambitious moment, a sprawling, relentless track that attempts to compress an entire album's worth of ideas into a single song. It shouldn't work as well as it does, but the sheer musical energy holds it together. Closing track "Black Chariot," a re-recorded fan favorite, ties everything together with renewed ferocity, sending the listener out on a high.
The mix is dense and relentless, which suits the material well, though it comes at a minor cost. The album's soundscape can lack dynamic range at times, occasionally overshadowing individual elements, most notably Arford's bass work, which deserves more room to breathe. It's a small gripe, however, against what is otherwise a punishing and well-executed record that sounds exactly as brutal as it intends to. Slay Utterly is Carrion Vael operating at the peak of their powers, fast and vicious, but rich in melodic color, harrowing in its subject matter, and technically formidable in its execution. With five albums in under a decade and a release schedule that would exhaust most bands in the genre, they have proven they have both the stamina and the ambition to keep raising the bar. This is their strongest statement yet, and one of the most compelling extreme metal records of 2026.
Check out the official video for their track "19 (fucking) 78."
Go give them a follow on Instagram: Carrion Vael
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