GandhiEgo | Recently, Martin Rosendhal and Brian Eriksen have kept busy. Not only did they announce the reactivation of Iniquity but they’re also giving us a new album from their other band Corpus Mortale. Since Neurotic Records have been rather inactive in the last few years, preferring to devote their time to the annual fest Neurotic Deathfest which takes place in the Netherlands in Tilburg, the band moved to Deepsend Records, a label from the US and already known for releasing Danish Death Metal (Dawn of Demise, The Cleansing, Deus Otiosus and Spectral Mortuary).
Fleshcraft (2012) displays on its cover a vaguely human creature, seemingly made of a pile of formless flesh and with protruding members coming from whatever experiment gone wrong or some human mutation (fans of Full Metal Alchemist should get this one). Either way, unlike the mad scientist that came up with this poor creature, Corpus Mortale really are masters of their own art.
A worthy follower of A New Species of Deviant, it doesn’t take long for the track Weakest of the Weak to impress with its technical guitar play (without ever going into demonstration mode), its solid rhythm section and its efficient drumming: at 3:28, is a perfect example of the overpowering riffing imposed by the Danes.
Guitar and bass parts were recorded at Anders Lundemark’s studio (Konkhra), the vocals recorded at drummer Rasmus Schmidt’s studio and both mixing and mastering were taken care of by Jacob Olsen (already guilty with Panzerchrist’s Regiment Ragnarok)… That sounds tricky! Still, the end result is more than satisfying with this pounding and tar-laden sound that characterizes the Danish scene and putting under the highlights the perfect balance shown by the band: in between old-school Death Metal and the more modern scene.
You soon will also notice that guitar leads are always great just as in the central piece of The Unwashed Horde or the final part of Enthralled.
Maybe what Fleshcraft may lack of is surprise, but if the urge to innovate was in the first place the main quality of such bands, I guess we’d know it by now. Corpus Mortale play the way they do best: genuine and inspired Death Metal, without giving second thoughts if they sound old-school enough or not. This “issue” is actually more of an identity crisis that younger acts seem to suffer from since they didn’t live during this golden era, like a born again Christian more exalted than its older peers. In other words, if you can see past post-1991 Death Metal, you should definitely dig Fleshcraft.
There’s no way you won’t be begging on your knees when Scorn of the Earth plays with its devastating riffing. No way you will not worship the heaviness of Love Lies Bleeding with its final decimating acceleration. Along with other superior tracks, Feasting Upon and his neck-breaking rhythmic sections influenced by Severe Torture or Suffocation is another fine gem. And talking about Suffocation, Brian Eriksen and his crew have also given to an old habit developed by the New-Yorkers: re-recording and polishing anew an old song, here with Seize the Moment of Murder taken from the eponymous EP.
Five years after A New Species of Deviant and nine after With Lewd Demeanor, Corpus Mortale took their time to come up with a typically Danish record: powerful, technical and precise but always with this old-school feel they can’t let go of.
Fleshcraft comes as yet another addition to all the great Death Metal releases of 2012 with other fantastic albums by Cannibal Corpse, Temple, Aborted, Coffin Text, Beheaded and Asphyx… that is… at the very top!
Review originally written by BEERGRINDER and translated from French with his permission.
2013-02-28 14:50:07
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