Longtime collaborators in Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Grinderman, Carnage is their first full-length studio album as a duo, apart from their extensive work in film music.

It's the work of two collaborative artists who are in the midst of a later-period renaissance that has spawned powerful, evocative music that speaks to its time without being confined to the crises that sparked its creation.

"[7] Robin Murray also gave the album a positive assessment in a review for Clash, declaring that it "stands as something unique, the sound of two vastly experienced musicians removing themselves from expectations, and constructing something both beautiful and visceral, tender and blood-thirsty, wholly terrifying and completely absorbing.

"[10] Helen Brown was less critical in the review for The Independent, stating that "Although the sonic mood mellows after the first two tracks, listeners will be invited to share the transcendent joy in memories of a lost child; the awe of an uxorious lover whose prayer-like love for his wife is a continual saving grace; and the frustration of a caged man with an “open road” of a heart.

"[11] Andrew Trendell of NME gave the album a perfect score, writing, "Carnage is arguably Cave and Ellis' best record since The Bad Seeds' latter day reinvention on 2013's Push the Sky Away, or maybe even Abattoir Blues.