Old-school Swedish death metal supporters will, most likely, know Paganizer. It’s a very hard-working act that returns with its sixth full-length CD and has also released demos, EPs, splits and 2(!) compilations.

The band’s main man is Rogga Johansson who’s growled for Edge Of Sanity and in the veins of Dan Swanö is involved in many projects. Paganizer started doing things the way they should with their last two albums (“Murder, Death, Kill” and “No Divine Rapture”) that contained heavy and very ‘containing’ death metal in the likes of (old): Unleashed, Grave, Dismember but also Death and Benediction. The difference between these albums was the increased speed in “No Divine…) with many rising blast beats.

“Carnage Junkie” leaves mixed feelings. Rogga still offers the same riffs but in a more ‘naïve’ way that according to the press letter is supposed to be crust/grind. Obviously some people want Paganizer to jump on the train of the grindcore fashion in the extreme metal scene, meaning a clumsy result. It’s obvious that Paganizer fail to sound like grind during the whole 50 minute album and instead end up with 12 uninspired songs. The two ‘Baywatchers’ for this CD are Rogga’s deep, brutal voice and the strong Swedish sound which is even more clear than before.

Any how, “Carnage..” is ok for a year full of flops by the genre’s strongest names (with few exceptions). The band’s real abilities were shown with 2003’s “Murder..” (mastering by Dan Swanö) but, supposing “No Divine…” was ‘ a faster of the same’, “Carnage…” is definitely ‘a worse of the same’.

P.S.: the 5 bonus tracks are the finest moments included in this release!!!