After a 12-year layoff, Germany’s preeminent Swedish-style death metal veterans, Fleshcrawl (who I am now learning were called both Morgoth and Suffocation back when they started, and finally switched to Fleshcrawl for obvious reasons), reemerged into the fray with the solid Into the Catacombs of Flesh back in 2019.
And now, after 7 years, some tragedy (vocalist Sven “Svenson” Gross passed away in 2021), and some significant lineup changes (2 new guitarists in Christian Kalbrecht and former Revel in Flesh member Apu Justin Reisch, and a new vocalist in Borisz Sarafutgyinov), they are back again delivering more Dismember worshipping goodness on their 10th album, Epitome of Carnage.
Not much else really needs to be said. There are plenty of bands vying for Dismember’s crown, like front-runners Demonical as well as Iron Flesh, Come Sweet Death, Carnal Savagery, Lik, just to name a few, but on Epitome of Carnage, Fleshcrawl appear to be back at the top of the discussion with complete and utter commitment to the sound.
First off, the all-important guitar tone, here self-produced in the band’s own ‘Scumlight Studios’. It’s perfect; buzzing, fuzzing, and razor sharp, and when it’s isolated to start a song or riff or groove- it’s utterly killer. Second, the songwriting; it’s the perfect mid-era encapsulation of Dismember‘s Massive Killing Capacity, Death Metal, and Hate Campaign. There are oodles of semi-melodic razor-sharp riffs and equal amounts of groove.
Now, the album does take a couple of songs to warm up, as it’s not until pure Dismember, “Patrol 17” worship of the 3rd track “Grave Messiah” that the revamped line-up starts to catch my ear and deliver something more memorable. Then, after that, the album really takes off with scorchers like the stern, mid-paced march and somber lead work of personal favorite “Embers of Wrath” (which recalls Demonical’s “Välkommen undergång”), doomier, moodier “Committed to Suffer”, slicing “Reign Forever”, another “Patrol 17”-ish number in “Orphan God”, “Let the Napalm Reign”-ish “Path of Thorns”, and album ending “Of Fire and Flesh”, where they end the album on a more atmospheric, moody note similar to “Dreaming in Red” or “Life – Another Shape of Sorrow”.
This summer has seen two damn solid albums from some HM-2 death metal veterans, In Pain and Fleshcrawl, and I wholeheartedly recommend fans of the sound check out both.
