...Mutilate, Eviscerate, Decapitate...

I'm going to get my opinion out of the way now, and then discuss the music in more detail. The way I feel about this album is strange; when it's good, it's really, really good. When it's bad, it's not that it's awful; rather the bad parts are weaknesses the band seems to have, if that makes sense. Ultimately it's a detriment to the album.

First things first, the production is excellent. Maybe a little too excellent. The album has a very thick sound to it. The guitarists obviously turn their mids up quite a bit here. The drums sound horrendously bad, which is a shame because the drummer isn't bad at all. That said, he is a little boring at times. I will say that while the drums sound bad, they do feel very appropriate for the 'thickness' of the album. The vocals come in pretty clear. This is good and bad, because the vocals range from really intense, deep gurgles to the weakest, softest "growl" (I actually think it's an inhale, kind of like a pig squeal that sounds tired) I've ever heard.

The song writing is absolutely bananas. It's all over the place. There's actually some really decent tempo changes, songs with a very dynamic feel to them. There's a lot of slow parts that are *almost* (but not quite) slam-like, and those are done very well. The mid-paced and faster-paced bits are a mixed bag. A lot of the riffs work really, really well (see: locked in the crosshairs) and a lot of them just kind of meander about. It feels like some of these riffs are just there to fill space, rather than to be interesting. There's a tasteful amount of sweep picking. The solos are pretty weak, but overall the guitar playing is definitely competent. I wouldn't say the riffs are "generic" sounding or anything like that; these riffs definitely stand out. It's just that some of them don't seem to go anywhere and consequently are not memorable.

There's definitely a lack of bass in the mix. It's there, for sure, but I wish it was a little more forward. The guitars are the most salient bit about the production. A little more about the drumming: He's very precise. It's almost machine-like. Unfortunately we don't get very many fills or anything really interesting from the drums, but I will say he's really good with the double bass. Overall, the album is a good listen. It's lacking in a few places but it's got enough of a strong suit to tip the scales in its favor. A solid offering, despite a few weaknesses.

After hearing the band's second album, Ecliptic Dimensions of Suffering I could smell loads of potential (just read the review), but there was something like experimentation gone awry in the sound. I hoped that perhaps their debut was something similar but less inane than their sophomore release, and unfortunately I was both right and wrong.

Flesh Consumed is obviously a death metal band, but where their allegiance in terms of sub-classification lies is totally out of my reach. They vary wildly, especially on this album, from bog-standard brutal death metal to chaotic and almost Wicked Innocence or Gorguts level of unique atmosphere - all the while trying to maintain a mantra of technicality and gore. To top it off, they include various samples to continue creating that atmosphere, only to abandon that for stupid anti-riffing like the beginning of "Human Abattoir". The actual naming of that classification is unimportant, but the band refuses to stick to one sound or even a handful of complimentary styles - they just branch out everywhere in death metal and shove those ideas together.

To be fair, there are parts where the broad strokes of death metal work - "Cast Into the Pit" being a personal favorite and identifiable as a song adhering to basic but strong ideas of arrangement. When the various vocalists - three of the four members of the band perform vocals throughout the album - come in all hell breaks loose.

Just imagine a toad croaking, now record that. Got it? Pitch shift that down a step or two and add a soft clapping sound underneath all of that. The mess you have before you is the vocal style on ...Mutilate..., i.e. an awful excuse for 'brutal' nonsense that does nothing but hinder the music on display. What's worse is that Corey, the 'lead' vocalist, doesn't know where to put his vocals; sometimes the most asinine or tedious riff will be left out in the open instrumentally and next the most interesting or atmospheric barrage will be drowned out by stupid gurgles.

Luckily the instruments themselves don't sound like something off of early Devourment records or something - the guitar tone is respectable and middy without becoming muddy or terribly boring. But there is a slight issue with the distortion itself that makes the chugging or slam portions of the songs sound weak. What's more is that the bass sound is totally axed and the guitarists are left to fill out the band sound by themselves, something that should never happen in death metal. The atmosphere the riffing is working so hard to create, or destroy even, is again taken apart by the lack of bass presence. Songs are relatively memorable and the riffs range from stupid unnecessary noodly bits to proper heavy metal riffs, but that isn't nearly enough to pull the band from the mess they've created,

The drumming is far from enjoyable and exceeds expectations when it comes to lackluster metal drumming. This guy is just keeping a beat and blasting every once and awhile - it's really boring and the drum tone is dreadful all around. Production is nothing special but, as I said earlier, leaves much to be desired in terms of bass presence and leaves the guitars and vocals as the primary sounds.

But, listening back again to this record, I have to think - perhaps the band's constant presentation of motifs within the death metal genre and then further deconstruction of those motifs is the point? Ranging from the slam sections in "Disinterment" to the sweeping sections of "Locked in the Crosshairs" the band is attempting to produce an album where the evolution of the music isn't forced to one genre's constraints. Unfortunately for Flesh Consumed, this methodical re-imagining of their sound results in a disjointed effort that can range wildly from enjoyable to outright confusing.

Pros:

+ Bold, if convoluted, flow of genres
+ Guitar tone is excellent
+ "Disinterment", "Cast Into the Pit", and "Locked in the Crosshairs" are excellent tracks

Cons:

- Bass presence is far from being just that, as in it's not there at all
- Drumming is beyond saving
- The bold rebuilding of sounds leads to a wobbly disjointed record
- Vocals are all just bad

All in all, it's not the worst thing I've ever heard in my life but the record is fairly weak. If you are thinking about ordering this maybe you should try something else, but if you're going in blind then I don't think there is much to draw you in here - the various styles are performed by better bands and with more coherency. Still, I can't help but think this band could establish an amazing sound for themselves so support them and hopefully their third release will be just that album.

At first glance, Flesh Consumed is simply another of the generic brutal/tech death metal bands that have been saturating the genre lately. But after listening to their album "Mutilate, Eviscerate, Decapitate," I have to disagree with that statement.

After about a minute of listening to eerie, grotesque sounds of what I can only guess are the victims on the cover art being horribly mutilated, you get hit with a wall of brutal, technically proficient death metal. "Schizophrenic Slaughter Frenzy" This is the beginning of nine tracks that combine to make this one of my favorite albums to listen to.

The guitarists do an excellent job demonstrating their proficiency with their instruments. The guitars play very memorable riffs that never seem to get boring, although the album does lack notable solos. Although the sound is slightly repetitive, the guitars for the most part vary their style, and go from slow/mid paced to fast repeatedly.

The influence of tech death bands like Suffocation, Cryptopsy, and others is evident, and is probably the most apparent in the breakdowns the band uses. These aren't the type of breakdowns you'd expect on a deathcore album, or on an album done by say Dying Fetus or one of the numerous other tech death bands that have been hopping out of the woodwork lately. The breakdowns that are featured on "Mutilate, Eviscerate, Decapitate" sound much more technical, more reminiscent of earlier tech death acts.

The drumming is awesome, and can be clearly heard during the entire recording. The drumming, along with the guitars, are two of the things that separate this band from the vast number of generic tech death bands springing up? The vocals are good, even if they're essentially a monotone throughout the entire album, and they don't sound to good when the vocalist tries to raise the pitch of his voice.

Overall this is a great album and one that you'll enjoy listening to over and over again.

For a long time, people had always been praising this band everywhere for a long time, but I had ignored it all because of the band's name which I found slightly amusing, which isn't a good thing when it comes to death metal. However, I decided to listen one song in youtube and gotta say I was amazed. Everything sounded so brutal and it was technical but not over the top, and one thing that attracted me to this was the bass; it's so high in the mix that for most part it can be heard quite clearly and it's not always the typical "follow the guitar -> do nothing for a few minutes -> follow the guitar -> (optional -> play a solo that lasts 1 second) -> repeat" pattern. Of course at times it is, but usually the rhythm is slightly different and the bassist plays higher notes when the guitarist plays lower ones and vice versa. This is something that most bands seem to have no intention of doing, or if they do, it ends up sounding bad.

Almost every track starts with an intro that consists of "gross" sounds, and it truly sounds good. Most bands fail at this too, usually so miserably it makes the album hard to listen to. But here the songs are generally long enough and have variety that it just won't get boring,

Guitars have a variety of things along the 40 minutes, but nothing that would sound too strange or out of the genre. Solos are short but usually occur in places where everything's in the danger of getting boring, bringing the variety it needs to stay alive.

I wouldn't even begin to say anything about drums, but I guess I have to because the drummer is really awesome. Definitely not just blast beats. I'll leave it to that since I'm not a drummer.

And the only thing that keeps this from not getting a 100... the vocals. I mean, my subconsciousness keeps bringing up the question "what the hell's going on with this guy!?" on every single track on the album at least once. It just sounds like he's running out of breath and tries to fix it with highening his voice; not a good thing. Unless he does it on purpose. If he does, then he's a genius, since it really sounds disturbing and unsettling. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy his vocals a lot, but it's just the longer growls that sound like he'd have trouble sustaining the sound.

Sevared Records, one of the leading labels and distributors in the realm of brutal death did not hold back when signing Santa Cruz CA's Flesh Consumed. This album is the long awaited full length that we were all looking forward to after hearing the promising demo and split cd material.

They pretty much stick to their roots and have a sound you would probably expect from a Californian brutal death metal act. What stands out about this band, is that their moshy breakdown riffs are more of technical descent as opposed to the slam riff parts that many bands have borrowed from bands like Devourment, Suffocation and Dying Fetus. These guys are fucking talented, and you can tell their roots stem more from FL style technical death (some of the riffs remind me of Morbid Angel-esque mid pace that they do before a lead happens). There are many flesh shredding guitar licks with dual guitars working together perfectly. Drumming is executed with great precision. Vocals are indeed that of BDM but this singer actually has more than 1 or 2 tones he can use... a gurgler with range! and the riffs.... fucking superb.

If you are a fan of brutal death metal than quite honestly you should already have this cd, but if you were holding back or if you are new to this form of music, buy this album as soon as you locate the source.... from a show, from the internet... where ever... just get it!