Pillars

While it works on previous works like III-Art of Losing All, and for certain songs here, the ambiance and lack of "real" music is a pretty big annoyance. The way which Fleshpress utilizes ambiance the best has always been to space it in between ups and downs, so for a section to be a bone crushing ground zero of sludgy goodness and then teeter out to a daze of feedback and random noises works exceptionally well; then it all builds up again in some way or another. Fleshpress does this quite well with the slow to start and very spaced out notes that begin the album, but at other times they fall flat. The second and last track are complete noise, which in my mind makes them throw aways. There's enough ambiance and absence of "kool riffz" at the end of the first track and beginning of the third to make the almost six minute endeavor of nothing completely pointless.

Complaints aside, the actual meat of this album is impressive as to be expected. The opening track is probably my favorite Fleshpress song. The song begins with a lone guitar and builds up and builds at an acceptable slow pace, then medium, then hits what feels like a brick wall of pure energy that explodes in to an awesome blast beat section. That's right, a blast beat, and it works amazingly well. Thick crushing riffs crash and crash again against the surging and powerful sounding drums as the vocals agonize over all the chaos; I was completely blown away when i first heard this section.

The second track really seals the deal. It carries a really strong A Blaze in the Northern Sky/Celtic Frost groove to the beginning which completely kicks ass. The track progresses to a funeral doom pace and from there develops this really great and creepy atmosphere of distant and slowly tremolo picked guitar as the drums stomp and fade in and out, all along the vocalist howls "We are the disciples of nothingness;" I'm a bit stupid as to how to write how great a section this is, so I'll just move on.

After the second track things kind of shift to a more minimalist and atmosphere driven approach. The twenty-three minute track "Omega Monolith" isn't nearly as interesting as the first and third track are, as it showcases a more trippy feel to it. I don't really know how to describe this track well, but for whatever it is worth I don't find it too great, it doesn't have any super-awesome-mega-fantastic completely mind blowing buildups of sludge mastery which makes it pretty unrewarding. It's a twenty-three minute song that doesn't really go anywhere, kinda forgettable.

'Grave Within" is a pretty okay atmospheric track until 6:58 or so when it explodes into a powerful groove which progresses into yet another blast beat section. This seems to be a replication of the album as a whole. Plenty of meandering, not so special parts separating plenty of above par and phenomenal music. The last 2 minutes or so to "Grave Within" showcase a more black metal style which is done extremely well and is something I hope to see more of on upcoming releases.

It's very hard for me to rate this album being that I feel there's so much to throw away. With my iTunes I've completely unchecked the second track, and just pretend it doesn't exist.By the time Omega Monolith is half way done I've kind of zoned out and begun to drool, luckily "grave Within" wakes me up. Part of me would love to speak nothing but praise for this album, but the mistakes are undeniable and unable to be overlooked. It's a great album, and bit more experimental and "unsafe" for Fleshpress, but change is a good thing and I'd rather not see them repeat themselves time and time again.

If you like sludge that pushes the boundaries, and enjoy the more extreme side of metal, give Pillars a good listen.

Fleshpress are described as a blackened sludge outfit, and while it is true that their previous releases show an influence from black metal, this is the first true fusion of the two styles—it can no longer be considered to have a black metal influence, but rather, it has become a core part of the sound.

Minimalism is the watchword of this release, as demonstrated right from the start. Opener “I am your Sacrifice” begins with rumbling, creepy, atmospheric noise and a very slow, loose and abstract figure on guitar which focuses on discord rather than melody. It reminds me strongly of the techniques used by bands such as Khanate, and should be of interest to fans of this style. This is sustained for some three or four minutes before the song proper explodes into form.
This opening section, with its cloying and oppressive atmosphere is returned to in spirit with the title track, which is not based on the same sound, but rather the same atmosphere. This time around, the main sound is more sustained and consistent, but with many half-heard noises buried in it: odd pattering noises, something akin to dropping water, and rumbling bass-created groaning noises that nearly sound like distorted whale song. It’s a chilling, but also sonically very interesting layer over which the focus of the piece is layered—a rather repetitive acoustic figure which is again based around discords. Overall it’s a very bleak soundscape which will draw in fans of dark ambient and perhaps some of the more droning forms of doom, since the “background” noise is actually far more absorbing than the guitar line!
Perhaps the strongest example of this kind of thing, however, is the final track, “Ave Nihil”. This is a pretty minimal dark ambient piece. It’s clearly influenced by several black/ambient works, but the flanging effect on the guitars reminds of Electric Wizard’s “Weird Tales”. It’s multi-layered and thus never boring, which is a blessing as it lasts almost ten minutes, making it the second-shortest piece on this album! I’d like to see Fleshpress develop this aspect of their sound, as it’s something that they’ve never really explored in depth before, but that they seem to be very skilled at. The strange percussion and strange tape manipulation noises near the end, in particular, make this a very strong piece.

The meat of the album is a little less minimalistic—it is a generally very slow, sludgy sound, quite sparse and repetitive, but very heavy. The bass is quite important to the sound, particularly on the song “Omega Monolith” where a simple but quite fast three-note figure is used to great effect to provide the spine of the song. Several of the faster parts feature very creative bass lines which are not always too apparent above the guitars, but reward the careful listener with stoner-influenced lines which really shape the sound. During slower sections it usually just follows the guitars or lays down a line of its own, but typically with plenty of variations to keep it interesting. The bassist seems to have almost ignored the black metal influence of the rest of the band, and avoids slipping into the mediocrity that plagues the bass lines of that genre. Indeed, it sometimes takes the lead, as in the beginning of “Open Grave”, eventually leading to a very well-executed build-up and climax.

The guitar work is far from technical, as you might expect given the framework of the album, and is given few chances to stand out. However despite this it is very well-played and appropriate to the sound of the album. As with almost all heavy metal, it is crucial to most of the sound. A very heavy tone is used to provide very thick riffing, which is usually fairly slow. Some clean sections are used for variation, for example for the first few minutes of “Omega Monolith”. Additionally, the strong black metal influence has lead to use of techniques such as extended tremolo picking, as well as many of the progressions.
A good example of this is in “Disciples of Nothingness”, where an extended section of this is used over a very simple two-note theme to pave the way for a huge climax to the song. This section is amazingly sparse and requires concentration to enjoy. But interestingly, it sounds far more like black metal than any kind of doom. In my opinion it’s probably a little too long—several minutes pass before any real variation presents itself. However despite this, I generally find the guitar work to be interesting overall. There’s even something like a solo in “Omega Monolith” which, although far from technically executed, and relying more on effects and distortion than anything, still comes over very well and really sets the stage for the faster part that follows.

The vocals are, for me, one of the weaker aspects of this release. I’ve really enjoyed Fleshpress’ vocals in the past—they are generally a high-pitched shriek would sound equally at home in the context of both very down-tempo modern sludge and black metal. It’s not dissimilar to the vocal work of bands like Dot[.] in sound. However, they feel a lot less powerful on this release. They seem to have been processed for the most part, taking the edge off things, and furthermore they’re much lower in the mix than we’ve come to expect from this band. The result is that they feel a lot less powerful and tormented than in past albums, which is a shame as I think that the more over-the-top performances on tracks like “All Things Broken” from their self-titled release would have worked really well on this album.
There are exceptions to this; most notably, I find that the vocal work at the climax of “Disciples of Nothingness” fits really well and helps to drive that piece ‘over the top’ and into excellence, and they sound really tormented at the climax of “Open Grave”. Indeed, they almost remind me of Varg in this section, due to the quavering little shrieks and gurgles at the end of some syllables. For the most part, however, they’re a weak point. I suspect that performance wasn’t as strong as in the past, making the processing necessary. It’s quite a shame, and for me is the album’s greatest flaw.

The drum work is very fitting. Due to the mostly slow tempi there are very few chances for drummer Mikko Aspa of Deathspell Omega fame to shine. Consequently it’s mostly quite simple, but with heavy use of toms to add an almost tribal sound at times. It is important to the sound—they never dominate, but do enhance the atmospheres. Blast beats are even used on a couple of occasions, which was quite a shock on my first spin of this release. It’s not very technical at any point, but given the nature of this album, I would probably complain if it was, and I am glad that it isn’t. A particularly nice touch is the way the drumming is simplified or even dropped for the slower parts of the album, which would be crushed by snare work, but are instead subtly highlighted with symbol and tom-tom work.

However, it’s not all down-tempo, and the band provides some tempo variations from time to time—for example, the first track eventually explodes into a fairly quick stoner-influenced and sludgy section with a very interesting bass line, eventually culminating in a section of blast beats and riffing which consists of playing a chord staccato and then allowing feedback to ring out in an even rhythm. This album does not rely on feedback to produce textures quite as much as earlier releases (although it still features strongly at points), and in a way it is comforting to hear this throwback in style. Fleshpress as still the same band as they were, no matter how much their style has evolved. I do sometimes miss the band’s inclination to stop playing and just mess around with feedback and drumming for ten minutes at a time in the middle of songs though!
Another good example of how this speed contrast is used is the third song, “Disciples of Nothingness”. This one opens with an explosion of drumming and tremolo-picked guitar noise, screaming and laughing, that almost sounds like it belongs on an early Darkthrone release, before dropping into an up-tempo stoner riff. It sounds like an odd juxtaposition, but it certainly works! It’s also very cathartic after the minimal and creepy title track, and the temptation to head bang is very strong here.

Overall, this release is excellent. The fusion of black metal makes it a very interesting and indeed unique experience. Although not a technically skilled release, the song writing is excellent, and it’s very absorbing although there are a couple of parts where it drags. These, in combination with the second-rate vocal are all that keep me from giving it a near-perfect score. I’d recommend the album to fans of the more down-tempo forms of sludge, and maybe even funeral doom fans, and those who enjoy a dose of dark ambient. It’s not yet black metal enough to appeal to pure BM fans, but those who enjoy both genres will certainly get a kick out of this.

It may be quite different from past releases, but this is certainly my favourite Fleshpress full-length so far.