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Carnifex

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Blackened deathcore with a genuine sense of atmosphere under all the tremolo and blastbeats — grim, symphonic weight that outlasts the genre's shock tactics.

Carnifex formed in December 2005 in Fallbrook, California, part of San Diego County, and emerged alongside the first wave of American deathcore bands. A self-titled five-track EP followed in 2006 on Enclave Records, with vocalist Scott Lewis and drummer Shawn Cameron the two members who have stayed with the band throughout its lineup changes.

Their debut full-length, Dead in My Arms, came out in July 2007 on This City Is Burning Records, and the band toured behind it with acts including Emmure, Whitechapel and For Today. The record's momentum brought a deal with Victory Records later that year, and the 2008 follow-up, The Diseased and the Poisoned, reached the Billboard Heatseekers chart and took the band through more than twenty countries.

Their early records leaned on breakdowns and death-metal riffing, but over time the band folded in black-metal tremolo picking, orchestral arrangements and colder, bleaker production, giving later albums a more atmospheric cast than the genre's reputation suggests.

Carnifex has released nine studio albums and three EPs, moving from Victory Records through Nuclear Blast to its current home at Sumerian Records. Since 2022 the band has been rounded out by bassist Fred Calderon, guitarist Neal Tiemann and rhythm guitarist Cory Arford alongside founders Lewis and Cameron, and they have remained among the more consistent long-running acts in the style.

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deathcoreblackened deathcore