Carnifex – More Than Misery
Release Date: 6th November 2026
Label: Sumerian Records
Order/Stream
Genre: Deathcore, Death Metal.
FFO: Whitechapel, Chelsea Grin, Lorna Shore, Suicide Silence.
Review By: Trina Julian Edwards
On Friday, November 6th, Southern California Deathcore legends Carnifex deliver their tenth full-length studio album, More Than Misery, marking their debut with Sumerian Records after signing in May of 2026. More Than Misery features vocalist Scott Ian Lewis, guitarists Cory Arford and Neil Tiemann, bassist Fred Calderon, and drummer Shawn Cameron. The band also brought in a new production team for the record. Tracking was done in Tennessee with Zach Householder of Whitechapel, and mixing was done by Jeff Dunne.
Press releases for the band note that More Than Misery is also a first in terms of perspective. On previous albums, Scott Ian Lewis has been writing from the viewpoint of someone who is going through traumatic experiences and trying to process as events occur. However, his perspective on More Than Misery is that of someone who has come out on the other side of suffering. This change in perspective is what gives the title its dual meaning: that there may be something worse yet to come, and that life is more than the misery it can sometimes bring.
Musically, the band approached More Than Misery with the goal of combining their death metal roots and pioneering deathcore sound with the symphonic elements they have incorporated into their music over the last 21 years. The guitars remain at the forefront, and while the orchestration is less pronounced, it continues to be an impactful force shaping the final result. The band is also known for their relentless live shows, and More Than Misery is intended to be as powerful on stage, if not more so, than the recording.
…and I Held Hands With Death is the instrumental intro to the album, and it has a sort of Old West ghost town vibe, with the acoustic guitar melody, the sliding guitar notes behind it, and the spooky ambient sounds running underneath it all, flowing into the title track.
More Than Misery opens with an ambient, horror-video-game-style intro, with Lewis’ layered vocals shrieking like something straight out of a nightmare. The band enters low and slow like they’re dragging a body behind them, before picking up the pace around 1:18 with faster, more aggressive chugging. At 2:48, the drums drop out, giving way to melodic guitars and a spoken-word passage. The moving leads build into beautifully harmonized guitars around 3:58 that have an almost Queen-like quality. From there, we’re thrown back into the familiar deathcore grinder. It’s fascinating how Carnifex weave what feel like two entirely different compositions into one cohesive track, balancing unsettling atmosphere and unexpected melodic detours with the crushing heaviness that has been their trademark for over 20 years.
One of the highlights for me is The Process of Pain, which opens with beautiful, haunting orchestral elements that sound like they belong in a Victorian gothic horror film. The band then drops in like a ton of bricks, shattering that illusion. An attack-and-release guitar section serves as a warning before the chunky rhythms and heavy melodies take over the verses. The rhythmic shifts are beautifully executed, taking us from lightning-fast passages to slower, chugging sections and a dramatic chorus. The solo has an almost ’80s-style wail that should feel out of place against the rest of the track, but somehow works. The song also features Chaney Crabb of Entheos, and they couldn’t have picked a better vocalist for the job. Whether singing or screaming like a banshee, she brings an intensity that fits this track like a glove.
No Gods Only Graves is just flat-out nasty. They’re pulling out all the old-school deathcore stops in this low-and-slow tank of a track, which relentlessly chugs along and obliterates everything in its path. Speaking of lows, Lewis’ lows here couldn’t possibly be better. He’s one of those consistently reliable vocalists you can always count on to deliver the goods. The chorus features some excellent church-like organ and choral elements that not only give it that spooky Carnifex atmosphere we’ve come to know and love, but also evoke religious imagery that adds another dimension to the narrative. Those ethereal elements are so at odds with the grinding guitars and crushing rhythms that they create an almost desolate feeling. This is definitely one of my favorite tracks.
Whatever the hell this monstrosity is, I want more of it. The opening strains of Coffin Crowned King revisit that Old West feel from the intro track with the melancholy acoustic guitars, and the juxtaposition of the beautiful intro with the down-and-dirty crunch, dare I even say groove, of the verse is jarring in the extreme. The chorus echoes the intro, with tons of melody and some excellent tremolo picking. The second verse riffs off the same melody as the first, but those chord changes are flat-out diabolical. They lean into the instrumental sections in this composition, but I’d be a fool to complain. The first solo at around 2:54 is channeling a spookier Chris Isaak, while the second at 3:40 is a fiery blast from the bad place. Lewis is in rare form here, sounding like nothing on Earth. I can officially say this is my favorite track.
Roses & Rotting Corpses was the first single released following the announcement that the band was making the move to Sumerian, and it’s one hell of a declaration of intent. It feels very much like they were setting the stage for what was to come, giving us a pretty good indication of where things were ultimately headed. A couple of drumbeats serve as a warning before Lewis comes roaring in, with the rest of the band following on his heels. The chorus puts more emphasis on melody without sacrificing the heavy foundation underneath, and the harmonizing guitar solo that kicks in around 2:06 is almost soulful. Lewis coming in over the final wail is a stroke of genius, with the guitar melodies continuing to weave underneath as we make our way back into the chorus. It’s a great reminder of why these guys were among the pioneers of deathcore. There’s still plenty of that abrasiveness, although the overall production and approach feel a little slicker and more modern than their old-school roots. While there’s a bit more polish here, I have no doubt that these songs will be plenty raw and gritty when unleashed in a live setting.
Carnifex don’t hold back on Only The Dead, not that they ever really do. However, there’s no intro to soften the blow; they just toss you in the deep end from the first second. The verses are an all-out frontal assault; it’s a grueling slog, ugly and interminable, but then the chorus brings some needed melody. And like their contemporaries, Whitechapel, Carnifex know the value of a good damn solo. It elevates the listener out of the mire for a brief, shining moment before chucking them back into the black hole to try to dig themselves out. Never mind that Lewis’ final shriek is legitimately terrifying. He is easily one of the best metal vocalists, and that he doesn’t get mentioned more often is a crime against nature.
The jangling, dissonant opening of Gothic Serpent immediately sets my teeth on edge, but what an evocative title! The verses maintain that same unsettling dissonance at a more mid-tempo pace. There’s a brief slowdown before the band dramatically accelerates at around 1:45 and launches into a somewhat more melodic chorus. In a not uncommon move for them, the solo almost sounds like it belongs to an entirely different track, which is a little more off-putting than usual. However, I feel like that’s rather the intention. There are also more breakdown elements woven into this one than we’ve heard so far. The final exit of the guitars and drums is every bit as dramatic as you could hope for, before the creepy outro brings us right back to that horror film atmosphere.
Heart Made of Teeth is, on the surface, a fairly standard chug-fest, but there’s some serious ballast behind these riffs distributing that heavy load. The chorus introduces a welcome melodic element, along with a sweet little harmonized guitar solo starting around 1:22. Lewis’ layered vocals are scraping the absolute bottom of the gutter, and I mean that in the best possible way. Around 2:10, we get a nice run of more melodic guitar leads before the band circles around to those sledgehammer riffs at 2:35. One more pass through the chorus gives the track a chance to reiterate that contrast between melody and heaviness, before Lewis delivers his dramatic final word. The ending seems rather abrupt, but the lingering harmonic is a nice touch. This beast is just begging for a circle pit.
Licking Love From A Knife opens with an extended, atmospheric introduction of piano, orchestral elements, and gradually building choral vocals, creating an appropriately spooky mood before taking an unexpected turn with a lone guitar and a Spanish-tinged acoustic solo. The song proper kicks in around 2:35, hitting like a battering ram and bringing us right back into familiar Carnifex territory with crushing, bottom-heavy guitars, chunky riffs, and plenty of blast beats. The original melody continues to float in the background, tying everything together, while harmonizing guitars around 4:26 add another melodic dimension. At 6:36, that introductory melody returns over a hip-hop-inspired beat with an abundance of heavy bass. I can practically hear my car trunk rattling now. Lewis and the crunchy guitars return at 7:16 for one final assault on our ears, bringing things back to that vicious heaviness.
Now, I love Carnifex, but I’ll admit I was really skeptical after hearing the singles. Early deathcore is not always my cup of tea. They won me over in the end, though. Don’t get me wrong, those singles hit like a loaded freight train, but I tend to like my Carnifex on the heavily blackened and slightly otherworldly side. That’s not to say it’s not in here; it is, as the tremolo picking and spooky ambiance will attest. Yes, there are still orchestral elements, used more sparingly, perhaps, but to great effect. More Than Misery is, at its heart, a more straightforward deathcore album. And yet who is going to do it better than some of the visionaries of the genre? If you’re looking for Necromanteum or even Graveside Confessions, while there are echoes of that here, you won’t find that vibe on More Than Misery. You won’t really even find Slow Death here (one of my all-time favorite albums), although it’s getting closer. Because that’s clearly not what they’re going for. There’s no big budget-sounding film score behind their tales of terror this time. No, this is the violent, dark, crushing brutality of a 2000s-era Carnifex with two decades of skill at their command, and it’s a hell of a thing. Don’t miss More Than Misery, out this Friday, November 6th.
(4 / 5)
