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FLESHCRAWL “Epitome Of Carnage”
FLESHCRAWL “Epitome Of Carnage”
By Dr. Abner Mality
FLESHCRAWL from Germany have been churning out putrid death since 1992 and “Epitome of Carnage” is album #10 from them. This band presents me with something of a conundrum because I have to be honest and admit the band has never had a fresh idea in their entire run and that includes this new one. But they also specialize in one of my favorite sounds…the grinding Swedish chainsaw of true Stockholm death metal! And they’ve nailed that sound down to the last agonizing note.
The band comes across as a less inventive version of DISMEMBER…they don’t quite have that band’s knack for memorable melodies amidst the mayhem…but when they lower the boom, they leave nothing alive. They’ve embraced that HM-2 chainsaw sound more enthusiastically than any other band I can think of, even including UNLEASHED and GRAVE.
The blazing fast tracks like “Blood Dominion”, “Grave Messiah” and "Committed To Suffer” all have a ton of velocity but not much in the way of identity. I much prefer FLESHCRAWL when they play with mid-paced and even doom pace. Then they are pretty much untouchable in this subgenre. “Reign Forever” hits a riff in the middle of the song that had me banging furiously. You just cannot argue with that kind of headbangery. “Path Of Thorns” and “Orphan God” are just about as good and showcase FLESHCRAWL at their best.
This band is doing much the same now as they did 30 years ago. But if you never get tired of that crushing HM-2 cacophony, FLESHCRAWL will never let you down.
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