You Owe What You Pay, the fourth full-length album from brutal death metallers Carnal Decay, is indeed an energetic and high-octane piece. There’s a lot of momentum to the music and the fast pace means the band absolutely blitz their way through the ten songs contained within the album.
Something that tends to be somewhat of a problem in the brutal death metal genre is that there’s often not a lot of variety between bands and songs, but that’s not the case with Carnal Decay. Each song is unique in its own way, yet the flow is easy and natural, with each song progressing well into the next, and whilst Carnal Decay haven’t exactly reinvented the wheel with the album, the music is unique enough for it not to sound like every other band out there in the genre.
A particularly good element about You Owe What You Pay is that you can practically feel the energy being emitted from your speakers as you listen to it – which is a sure-fire way to know that the band will annihilate in a live environment! – and one of the best examples of this is fourth track Show Your Fucking Face. One of the shortest tracks on the album, there’s a lot squeezed into its duration and the beat will have you wanting to bang your head and move about to the song, especially when coupled with the powerful vocals and the fantastic wall of sound from the guitars.
As a whole, You Owe What You Pay is a great album, and you can really tell this comes from an established band because it’s a tight and together piece of work, and a very enjoyable listen. Now, fingers crossed I’ll get to see them live soon!
8/10
