The corpsepainted CARNIVAL IN COAL, founded by Amiens university students Axel Wursthorn (a.k.a. 'Alan Thursday Morning') and former EXTRAVAGANZA man Arno Strobl (a.k.a. 'Zarl Zenglers), confounded many extreme Metal fans upon their debut, the group imbuing their distorted version of Metal with scatlogical lyrics and unexpected cover versions. Victims of the band's quite unique slant on their originals would be GERRY RAFFERTY's 'Baker Street', OZZY OSBOURNE's 'Bark At The Moon', MORBID ANGEL's 'Fall From Grace', a lounged out rendition of PANTERA's 'Fucking Hostile', GENESIS' 'Mama' and even MICHAEL SEMBELLO's Disco hit 'Maniac'.

The duo's first commercial offering would be the inclusion of a demo version of 'She Male Whoregasm' included on a May 1997 'Hard Rock' magazine sampler. The 1998 album recording 'Vivalavida' followed. From the first reviews it soon became apparent that CARNIVAL IN COAL's juxtaposition of harsh Metal, Electro, Pop and twisted humour was wreaking confusion amongst critics and fans alike. Axel Wursthorn would also be engaged in contributing solo music to the Antoine Douchet cult movie 'Cum To Live', billed as "The first safe sex thriller".

Rather bravely, Season Of Mist Records picked up the band for November 1999's 'French Cancan'. This outing famously opened with an irreverent take on OZZY OSBOURNE's 'Bark At The Moon, featuring a guesting Pascal 'Betov' Collobert of ADX, and included S.U.P.'s Ludovic Loez on the GENESIS cover. Most alarming of all though would be the smooth Jazz interpretation of PANTERA's 'Fucking Hostile'.

April 2001's 'Fear Not' scored a cover of S.U.P.'s '1308.JP.08', also donated to a tribute album. CARNIVAL IN COAL signed to the Elitist label in May of 2004. That same year Alex Wursthorn acted as producer for WORMFOOD's 'Jeux d'Enfants' album. The 2005 album sessions for 'Collection Prestige' included guitar contributions from Frédéric Leclercq of HEAVENLY and MALADAPTIVE.

As 2006 opened the band announced they had contracted a new record deal with French label Equilibre Music. CARNIVAL IN COAL announced a fresh line-up in January 2007, counting vocalist Arno Strobl, guitarists Pierre Antonik and Romain Caron, bass player Axel Wursthorn, keyboard player Julien Cathalo and drummer Alexis Damien.