The Top 25 Albums Of 2021 (So Far): Nick Cave And Warren Ellis - 'Carnage'

As the snarling, smoky tones of Nick Cave creep out via Hand Of God, aka the opening track from Cave’s recent collaboration (and non-Bad Seeds) album Carnage alongside instrumental extraordinaire Warren Ellis, it fleetingly feels like familiar territory for anyone intimately accustomed with the mystical kings of alt rock. But while the release of Carnage back in February was by no means the pair’s first team-up beyond their Bad Seeds repertoire, it does mark the first full length album release for Cave and Ellis collaborating directly together outside of their extensive film score work; and the end result is true nihilistic magic. 

A mesmerising journey bustling with dark and daring twists and turns across its eight tracks, Carnage was always destined to be spell-bounding given its two prolific creators and their flair for dexterous composition and candour. But what’s perhaps most bewitching about Carnage is its cinematic urgency and atypical tonality, as Cave and Ellis shed the typical trappings of rock and pop, and instead trip the light fantastic into an oozing realm of repeated motifs laden with jarring malice and forlorn jubilance that would, at times, make David Lynch proud.

While not officially a concept album per se, Carnage truly demands to be listened to from start to finish, as the threads of grief and catastrophe personified by Cave as an unseen protagonist intertwines with Ellis and his dexterous strings cocooning the sprawl and gothic overtones. Amid bombastic imagery and violence (White Elephant) and dissonant jaunt (Old Time), there’s also moments of searing serenity (Albuquerque, Lavender Fields) wafting alongside primal yearning (Shattered Ground) and a choking heartbreaker courtesy of closing track Balcony Man.

Just when you think you’ve settled into the divergent first half of Carnage, Cave and Ellis flip the switch and bring you closer to the likes of Leonard Cohen daydreaming in an apocalyptic parallel universe. Thematically, this is an album only a pandemic could’ve ultimately borne; but for Cave and Ellis, this exploration into complicated themes of panic and hope in a world gone mad has resulted in brutal and exceedingly powerful beauty.