LIQUID FLESH
LIQUID FLESH “Dolores”
By Dr. Abner Mality
Talk about a dark horse coming out of nowhere...that’s just what we have with this band from Grenoble, France (hometown of Andre the Giant, by the way). This is thinking man’s death metal of the first order, superbly played and recorded and most importantly of all, something new that hasn’t been done to death like 90% of the death metal being released these days.
This thing is LOUD! The opening chords of “Urbex Macabre” hit like hammer blows, huge and vast in impact. The whole album comes across with the same force and clarity. It’s hard to nail down exactly who LIQUID FLESH sounds like and that’s part of what makes it so good. But I hear resemblance to PESTILENCE, GORGUTS and their fellow countrymen, the cruelly underrated MERCYLESS. The band are riff machines, dealing out an interlocking maze of catchy, progressive sounds that flow into each other seamlessly. It falls into a realm where the sound is not super technical but things are constantly changing. The super guttural growls of Putrid Bruce are death metal to the max and act almost as another instrument, but the lyrics are all French, which doesn’t detract from the music at all.
The album is apparently a concept dealing with the mental deterioration of a young woman...think of Polanski’s movie “Repulsion”. The guitar work is almost psychedelic in spots and the band is not afraid of doomier, weightier riffing. Every track here is worthy, but my particular favorites are “Urbex Macabre”, “Tapage Nocturne” and especially the monstrous “Sans Relache”, which might be the best, most ball-breaking death metal song I’ve heard this year.
So much death metal is just regurgitation of what’s gone before, Not LIQUID FLESH. This band deserves to be heard by the widest audience possible.