CKY - Carver City

Four years after the release of An Answer Can Be Found CKY returns with Carver City, the first effort from the group on Roadrunner Records. This is a quasi-concept album about a fictional, vacation-esque destination city probably located somewhere in New Jersey. The album comes in two editions with the "deluxe" including expanded artwork and four extra tracks. The artwork was done by Travis Smith based on concepts from band members Deron Miller and Chad I Ginsburg- and I must say I am quite impressed! Definitely fun to examine and it added directly to the concept.

The album starts off with a bang with the first single "Hellions on Parade." This is a strong start to an album and in typical CKY fashion: strong riffs, a catchy hook and great references to previous songs. The third track "Rats in the Infirmary" has Deron exploring a scream that I had previously only heard live (and I liked it!). There are some good breakdowns and guitar work throughout the album, most noteably in "Plaged by Images." Two of the four bonus tracks are instrumental offerings of which I wouldn't mind a few more of.

The band has been through quite a bit over the past couple of years and I think it shows as I don't feel this is the best work they have done. There are some great songs on this album "Karmaworks" and "The Era of an End" I'm looking your way. Overall the ratings are as follows:

1. Listen start to finish - 13
   
2. Listen again within a week - 14
3. Originality - 10
4. Advancement - 5
5. Remorse - 12

That gives the album a total rating of 54.