Carver City

The lyrics of the songs on Carver City are largely focused around the story of a fictional town of the same name. Speaking at the time of the album's announcement, primary songwriter Miller offered the following description of the concept: "The fabled town of Carver City has a history of bad luck and misfortune, all the while giving the impression that it's a pleasant family getaway. Much like CKY's town of Hellview, Carver City's events are depicted in the songs, with story lines coming from real-life events."[4] Adding more detail to the concept, it was noted in an interview with the website Noisecreep that the city is named after a fisherman who killed his crew and later returns to "curse the city", leaving residents trapped; Miller has revealed that this is intended to be "pretty symbolic of where we are today with the economy".[5]

The album opens with "Hellions on Parade", which is the third entry in the band's own "Hellview" storyline, which started with Volume 1's "96 Quite Bitter Beings" and Infiltrate•Destroy•Rebuild's "Escape from Hellview".[5] Miller describes Hellview as "a town that doesn't take kindly to outsiders", explaining that "[Hellions on Parade] is about Hellview destroying its rival city".[5]

One of the focal tracks of the Carver City story is said to be "The Boardwalk Body", which was written by Miller based on a true story wherein a dead body was discovered during one of his family holidays in Wildwood, New Jersey.[18][19] Speaking about the story, the vocalist and guitarist noted that it happened when he was "11 or 12" years old and described it as "a really bizarre period of learning for me".[5] Lana Cooper of the website PopMatters has proposed that the song is a sequel to an earlier track on the album, "...And She Never Returned", in which a young woman goes missing and is never found, presumed to be murdered.[19]

Musically, Carver City has been noted for its experimental nature and difference from the band's previous releases. In his review of the album, AllMusic's Phil Freeman noted the prominence of synthesizers on many of the songs, which with other elements he claimed made the band sound "bizarre ... weird ... [and] unique".[20] Similarly, Cooper of PopMatters claimed that "Carver City finds CKY miles away from the sophomoric sounds of their demos ... as well as that of their last disc, 2005's An Answer Can Be Found.[19] She also highlighted the use of synthesizers on the album, describing that they "add to the eerie atmosphere and sound almost like a second guitar".[19]

Other critics, however, compared Carver City to preceding CKY albums. Blabbermouth.net's review claimed that "this is classic CKY, to the point that most of these songs would fit seamlessly on the band's previous albums", highlighting "Plagued by Images" and "Karmaworks" in particular as reminiscent of the band's older material.[21]

Carver City was the third album released by CKY to register on a music chart, reaching number 46 on the US Billboard 200.[22] The album was also the band's first to chart on the Billboard Hard Rock Albums chart, on which it reached number four,[23] and the Billboard Rock Albums chart, on which it reached number 14.[24] According to Nielsen SoundScan, the album sold approximately 11,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release.[25] According to Miller, as of August 2015 the album has sold over 37,000 copies, making it the lowest-selling CKY studio album.[26]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[20]
Blabbermouth.net	7/10[21]
Laut.de	[27]
PopMatters	[19]
Powermetal.de	8.5/10[28][29]
Rock Sound	7/10[30]
Ultimate Guitar Archive	8/10[31]

Media response to Carver City was generally positive. Freeman of AllMusic applauded the band for being "smart and unique" on the album, praising elements such as the use of synthesizers and "seriously heavy" guitar riffs, especially on the tracks "Rats in the Infirmary", "Woe Is Me" and "A#1 Roller Rager".[20] Cooper of PopMatters praised the release in comparison to its predecessor, An Answer Can Be Found, by claiming that it "strikes the right mix of theme and variety while offering a much more polished version of the sound that brought them to the dance".[19] She went on to describe the style of the album as akin to "grandiose ‘80s thrash- and power-metal with a modern sensibility", praising the contribution of bassist Matt Deis.[19] Amy Sciarretto of Ultimate Guitar Archive praised the genre-defying and "twist[ing] and turn[ing]" nature of the songs.[31]

Some reviewers did, however, criticise the lack of variety on the album. Blabbermouth.net's review criticised Carver City for featuring many songs which are similar to those released on previous albums, concluding that it has "just a couple too many uninspired songs".[21] Similarly, Rock Sound noted that the album's style was "a familiar realm", but continued by describing it as "better focused, clearer sounding rock".[30]