Fleshcrawl
Soulskinner
Metal Blade
Well, after listening to Bolt Thrower’s Honour, Valour, Pride, I just find it hard to get into this, Fleshcrawl’s sixth release. These guys sound very stale, as if their well of riffs is beginning to run dry. The creativity seen in their earlier releases (particularly Descend Into Darkness) is gone, and they even stoop so low as to cover Judas Priest.
Anyway, Soulskinner does have some saving graces. The record does rock with lightning fast riffs, and the overall speed of the record is breakneck, so you grind fans will appreciate it. The sound quality of the record is fantastic as well, for the band produced the record themselves. The drums are crisp, with every drum hit and cymbal crash coming through quite clearly, the bass is hearty and chunky, the guitars a little bit on the high end scale of things and the vocals are at about a six (out of ten) on the “evil-ness” scale. The melodies are still relatively strong, but there are a few riffs that sound as if I’ve heard them on previous releases.
Don’t get me wrong, Soulskinner doesn’t suck… not in the least. It just doesn’t really stand up to their previous efforts. I mean, it’s cool that they’re still putting out some really brutal friggin’ death metal, but their earlier stuff was a lot better. Try Descend Into Darkness if you’re new to the band. If you’ve got a few extra bucks and want to rock, give this a try.
Metal Blade Records: http://www.metalblade.com
