Collection Prestige

Personnel: Arno Strobl (vocals).
Audio Mixer: Axel Wursthorn.
Recording information: Walnut Groove Studio, Amiens, France.
Extremist French art-metal duo Carnival in Coal returns with Collection Prestige, an album that shows that Arno Strobl and Axel Wursthorn aren't willing to stay in one musical space. The assaultive death metal that was the primary basis of their earlier albums is still present, but it's been dialed back considerably to let the other aspects of their brainy but relentlessly smart-alecky musical purview come to the fore. As a result, "Fuckable" alternates grindcore (complete with Cookie Monster vocals, also heard on several other tracks) with a playful fake-disco verse and the chanted refrain "F*ck me, I'm brainless!" Later, "Cartilage Holocaust" expands on the tongue-in-cheek dance-pop, performing an entire song in a giddy approximation of the slick late '70s with suitably horrific lyrics, while "Delivery Day" and "Ohlala" sound closer to '80s-vintage Residents, or perhaps the early Residents-associated albums by Swiss avant-disco merchants Yello. Then "Promenade" ends the whole thing with an orchestral daze that sounds like Edgard Varèse played by drunken chimps. As always, this is pretty weird stuff, but because it's more musically varied than Carnival in Coal's earlier records, it sounds weirder (and more entertaining) still. ~ Stewart Mason