Friday, 13 February 2015

Fleshmould - The Lazarus Breed (Shiver Records, 2006)

 
 Fleshmould - The Lazarus Breed

This is quite an ambiguous record: on the one hand it attains all the elements that'd otherwise constitute a truly quality death metal album, and on the other there are times where the album becomes dull, uninspired and bland. The band is trying to be original here and the technical capabilities definitely would allow them so, but what is lacking here unfortunately is emotive inspiration. As a matter of fact, the music per se is not monolithic or simplistic, but when taken as a whole the album loses the game in being both complex and yet captivating. The music can be primarily described as technical death metal deriving influences from a multitude of bands of both American and Scandinavian origin. Compositions swerve from rippling mid-tempo chugging and groovy-cum-core passages at times even reminiscent of Meshuggah's contorted rhythms (especially the stop-start riffage towards the end of the second track). All clearly delivered through an almost impeccable production. On the vocal department, the growler behind the mic faithfully delivers low-end, low-volume pig-grunts, quite reminiscent of Demilich's Antti Boman at times and Suffocation's Frank Mullen. Nevertheless, apart from some eyebrow-raising moments, there isn't much here that'd lift the album from the rest of the pile of death metal releases. 




Contact: http://www.fleshmould.com

(originally written for Chronicles of Chaos - 3/9/2006)

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