FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE
ORACLES (Album)
2009, Candlelight Records / Willowtip Records




Crinn : 20/20
[Originally posted August 4, 2010]

There are many elements of music that progressive death bands blend in with their music. I have come to find that many of these bands such as Opeth, and Between the Buried and Me, like to add some jazz rock to their death metal sound. Other bands, such as Soulfly and Amorphis, like to blend in a bunch of progressive rock in with their metal sound to make a thick, beautiful sound. Fleshgod Apocalypse does something different though. Fleshgod blends in clips of classical music in with a fast, brutal death metal sound. I discovered this band via internet and at first, this did not seem appealing to me, so I nearly forgot about the band. A couple of months later, I came across them, and looked them up. The impression it gave me was nothing short of amazement.

Fleshgod Apocalypse is a fairly unknown progressive death band hailing from Rome, Italy. Mixed in with most of the songs on Oracles are orchestral music, chamber choir choruses, and an entire song being a classical piano solo song. The music is extremely fast, extremely brutal, extremely technical, and extremely amazing. I’ve looked everywhere trying to find out who plays the piano in Oracles and Embodied Deception, but it doesn’t say anywhere. So I have come to the conclusion that the only possibility is that the pianist is the reanimated corpse of Chopin. That is how amazing the piano parts are. The guitar distortion is very powerful, and has a bit of a buzz to it.

In Honour of Reason starts with one of the most amazing intros I’ve ever heard, starting with the sound of an orchestra tuning, then the brutal guitars come in. After that, the song is very fast with very tight drumming. The message of the song is embracing realistic humanity. Post-Enlightenment Executor is an astonishingly brutal song with quite a bit of blast-beat drumming and technical guitar riffs. As Tyrants Fall is an excellent song. The only downside is that the song is slightly repetitive. But a symphonic waltz at the end of the song makes up for most of the repetition. Sophistic Demise is the fastest song off of the album with impressive drumming. The vocals also seem slightly higher pitched in that song than in the others. Requiem in Sj Minore is the longer and calmer song off the record. I’m guessing that the band felt they needed to slow things down a bit on one of the songs. There are only two words I can use to describe At the Guillotine, and that is PURE BRUTALITY. Embodied Deception is my favorite song by this band. The piano intro is some of the fastest piano playing I have ever heard in my life. The song is very fast, it’s brutal, and it has so much creativity it’s practically shoving it down your throat! Infection of the White Throne is an anti-religious song with very powerful kickdrumming. It also has a choir singing at the end to add the classical element. Retrieving my Carcass has some very good bass riffs and brutal drumming. The last song, the title song, is a classical piano solo piece that is very good, and I would do a lot to get my hands on some sheet music of that song (I have been playing piano for about ten years and my favorite kind of music to play is classical). This album is amazing and a must-have. 19/20.

2011-12-19 23:03:41