Carnival Red Into Clear Vinyl

Carnival finds the Fort Worth trauma ray captures some of their strongest, most intense, and exploratory work within the boundaries of a whirlwind year. The breakout success of Chameleon, their 2024 debut on Dais Records, further established the band amidst the current wave of shoegaze revivalists, yet increasingly agile, able to weave between scenes, touring throughout 2025 with the likes of Deaf heaven, Loathe, and Touche Amore. A confluence of blitzing riffs and stark beauty, their sound continues to evolve, nodding to loudquietloud greats across metal, grunge, and shoegaze from Slowdive to Smashing Pumpkins. Carnival delves into moodier, more cerebral material, like holding their past excursions against a funhouse mirror. There039s a distinct sense of unease in these songs, built as a band in a fleeting window of time, proving they work best under pressure and when pulling from the darkest corners of their subconscious. The wordless 34Carousel34 ushers in the EP039s unsettling atmosphere with blasts of static and downcast strums giving way to 34Hannibal34, an anthemic track packed with power riffs and raw emotion. The band has hit this kind of sheer power before, from 2018039s 34Solstice34 to Chameleon039s title track, while 34Hannibal34 contorts with a tinge of unprecedented evil, slithery, 34Stone Templey, Alice in Chainsy,34 Avilaquips. Lyrically, he taps into teenage angst, the feeling of being dissected and rejected.34Mlis34, named after the French illusionist and filmmaker cuts between heavy, sludgy chords and a skyward chorus, 34from something scary to like a dream state,34 says Avila, who channels the namesake039s surreal abstraction. His lines detail, 34being stuck in your head and just making up realities that probably aren039t the real thing going on, when you don039t want to face the truth. Funhouse34 dips into doom metal, with sparse guitarwork and possibly the band039s slowest ever BPM, as selfproclaimed Sleepheads. Lyrics play with shifting perspectives, culminating in the callandresponse outro 34take my hand this is not your wonderland34that conjures two forces, or frames of mind, at odds with one another. In contrast, the final track 34Clown34 jolts, flashes, and pummels, like the listener has come out the other end of a house of horrors, now fully immersed in the jarring, disorienting lights of the carnival. Personified by a knotty, synthy lead guitar squal34the lead tone is something I039m super proud of, we039ve never had something like that in a trauma ray song,34 per Perez34Clown34 reminds them of Robin Williams, an archetype of tragic happiness, how the people trying the hardest to make others laugh may privately be the saddest. Sonically, the band is quick to credit the influence of Undone and Stuck on You by 03990s cult favorite Failure, alongside the omnipresent Loveless, which gets to the greatness of trauma ray five musicians absorbing, synthesising, and expanding on what they love. Carnival offers a brief and highly loopable detour into darkness from a band growing more formidable by the mile.