Carrion Vael: The Mind Of A Murderer
Technical death metal has become one of the most fiercely contested genres in the metal world with everyone vying for the spotlight and who can create the most outlandishly extreme music possible. Richmond’s own CARRION VAEL are quite new on the scene in the grand scheme of things but their output thus far has caused a significant ruckus. Their third full-length album entitled Abhorrent Obsessions is poised to elevate them even further.
“This album is definitely the best material we’ve done by a long shot,” declares frontman Travis Lawson Purcell. “The production is good and it’s my favourite release that I’ve worked on. The backing from Unique Leader has been really great for us too. They seem to have it all together which is something I feel like I don’t have a lot of the time! They’re awesome and I just can’t wait to do more and continue that relationship. All that matters to me is to keep doing this and keep doing what we’re doing and hopefully be able to do it at a high level. We’re still a small band in the grand scheme of things and I would love for more people to hear our songs. The response we’ve had to our music has been fantastic so far. We just want to hit the road and really show our music off to as many people as possible. 2023 is going to be a big year for us as far as touring is concerned so if anyone wants to tour with us, let’s go!”
Travis takes a lot of pride in his lyrics and the conceptual themes which bind the band’s material. He is an avid fan of literature and this sets him in good stead for whatever maniacal constructions the band conjures up. “The Devil In Me was the first song we finished for the album and that kind of set the precedent for what came after. We wanted to maintain that CARRION VAEL vibe which is melodic death metal but I also wanted to make it heavier and step it up every time. Lyrically, for our previous album God Killer, I wrote about the likes of Jack Parsons, L. Ron Hubbard and Aleister Crowley but this time I wanted to dive into the psychological mind of mass murderers. Where we’re from is the hometown of Jim Jones, Jonestown, and ‘don’t drink the Kool-Aid’. I wanted to delve into the mindset of the likes of John Wayne Gacy, Herbert Mullin, HH Holmes and that’s kind of where we’re at on this album.”
A collaborative approach to writing in any field ensures that all avenues can be explored to determine the best course of action. CARRION VAEL take the development of their music very seriously and some songs can go through a whole host of revisions until they are the best they can possibly be. “So I was actually the original guitar player in the band,” admits Travis. “I just switched over to vocals when we struggled to find the right person. I then discovered I really enjoy vocals. So when it comes to songwriting Trent, our guitar player will basically write a full song and bring it to me then I can tweak it to fit my vocals around it. Sometimes they’re perfect and don’t need any adjustments. We’ll then take it to Chris, our drummer, and start to learn the song together and maybe make a few changes along the way. We’ve now got Ryan in the band too so he joins in and works with Trent on the initial writing process.”
When you choose to devise such elaborate and intricate lyrical content to accompany your musical output it is essential to ensure that the artwork further enhances the entire listener experience and ties the product together. CARRION VAEL acquired the services of Justin Abraham to bring their vision to life, who not only contributed to the cover art but also provided a range of individual pieces to accompany and encompass the concept.” Justin is awesome, I’d love to hide him away and have him just do art solely for us,” jokes Travis. “The world should know about how good he is. I really hope he gets a lot more commissions going forward. One of my favourite things about working with Justin is that he’ll just have an honest conversation with you. You could literally just say to him ‘I want something awesome’ and he would deliver but I read a lot of books based on the people I write songs about so I wanted to put a lot of Easter eggs in the artwork and we had a lot of long conversations about each piece. He did five pieces in total based on five separate killers.”
Abhorrent Obsessions is out now via Unique Leader Records.
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