Fleshtized "Here Among Thorns" CD
[Forever Underground]
Here's some fast, brutal death metal with midrange vocal growls from this Alabama trio that's a bit more creative than much of what's out there in my opinion. The performance is tight as shit, too. The drumming is rock solid with tons of blasts, the rhythms never miss a beat, and the solos are fucking pristine - even at blistering speeds! These guys are doing a lot of things right. I like the fact that the speed in this case feels more energetic than usual, and the riffing is rife with bursts of complexity or melody - nothing is stagnant. I like the fact that most of the songs are pretty short, but all of the songs tend to flow very well despite all of the changups. And I really fucking like the melodic solos a lot, they're a great addition to the constancy of the rhythms. "Everything Dies" throws out some totally fucked up dissonant riffing and some insane chord phrasings that almost sound like Gorguts, but cleaner and more melodic, and "Feral Earth" also offers more unusual chord progressions - this time bringing in a little bit of a mid-era Morbid Angel flavor to some degree. "Clash Dimension" ends with a ridiculously long guitar solo that concludes with a mass of noise, and then they blast right into a nice cover of Morbid Angel's "Rapture" (even though they didn't tune down nearly enough to really do the song full justice) followed by a brief instrumental to end the record. The production is pretty damn good except for the fact that the bass is way too hard to hear, and the drums tend to cut through the mix. I'm not all that bothered by it, but I'd really like the mix to play down the rigidity of the drums and favor the low-end of the bass a bit more (especially because the bass solo in "Everything Dies" leads me to believe that the bassist in this band s fucking awesome). However things are very clear and precise, so they do have that working in their favor. I like the layout on this one a lot. The band logo could use some work, and the band photo on the back cover is dull and lacking in color compared to the artwork, but the art itself is very cool. I like the warmth of the colors and the grittiness of the abstract textures. The lyrics are also presented in a clean and simple font, so that's cool. As far as the content is concerned, it's not your typical "evil, kill, Satan, gore" death metal. "The minds are closed to learning... expansion, Each of us surrounded by the naïve in denial, They boast so loudly now, but the truth is coming out, No grasp upon realities of greater law..." Some of the passages are better than others, but at least they have concrete ideas to explore rather than regurgitating what most other bands are dealing with. This one gets a recommendation from this end. Check 'em out. (7/10)
Running time - 33:41, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Ill Divine, Everything Dies, Feral Earth]
Forever Underground Records - http://www.foreverunderground.com

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