Do you know Victory Records? Pit bull logo, heretofore always associated with Hardcore Metal? Well, times they are a-changin'. In terms of legitimate, honest, not-the-cliché-but-the-real-deal brutality, most labels have their one "bully of the block", the real heavyweights of the global brutality circuit. But to think that one of the contenders are backed by a predominantly Hardcore label - that's an odds maker's nightmare. But for those bold fight fans willing to double down on the long shot with CARNIFEX, the payoff is big.

Besides the fact that they knew a good band when they saw one, there is a legitimate link between Victory Records and CARNIFEX. Crammed in throughout "Hell Chose Me" are the severed limbs and bloody appendages of the typical Hardcore breakdowns, fed through a voracious meat grinder of old school Death Metal. The important thing here - and the reason that CARNIFEX and "Hell Chose Me" work so well - is the fact that at all times the music is true blue Death Metal. With that firmly established, the forays into odd time signatures with multiple drum variations and Ginsu-sharp guitar riffs serve their proper place as tempo shifters, and are great excuses to wreck yer neck.

With the amalgamation of the CARNIFEX sound pinned down, one shouldn't be too surprised to find how committedly consistent "Hell Chose Me" really is. One minute you're slipping a disc to "Dead Archetype", and the next you're giving your brain a case of shaken baby syndrome to the frenzy of "Sorrowspell". The prognosis of sustained exposure to all 10 titanic tracks on "Hell Chose Me" is an almost guaranteed persistent vegetative state; but by all means, don't let that stop you - after all, CARNIFEX would be great mood music for re-learning how to walk and eat without a bib again…