A Beautiful Sickness

Project: Failing Flesh was (judging by the title itself) just a project of Tim Gutierrezo and Kevin 131 for some time, but things started getting interesting when Eric Forrest (E-Force, Voivod) joined in. During 2003 they have recorded debut album entitled "A Beautiful Sickness" in Assembly Line Laboratiries Studio. These guys were picked up by Karmageddon Media and this album will be officially out in the end of may, 2004. Here we have basically melodic death metal in the vein of Soilwork, but far from the thing that they are just a copycat. Project: Failing Flesh have created unique music, which separates them from the rest of the bands labeled as melo death. The songs are... umm... crazy?! Logic doesn't have a meaning here. "A Beautiful Sickness", "Planet Dead", "Scene Of The Crime" are some of the songs that are really unpredictable. Unusual rhythms, crazy riffs, melodies... only the vocals are 'old-fashioned'. Going even further, "Planet Dead" is kind of mix between Brainstorm and Neurosis (imagine that stuff dudes!); "9MM Movie" features good leads on violin, but the ending of the song for everyone, but for usual metalheads. You really need to be into morbid and crazy metal stuff to like "A Beautiful Sickness". Not saying that this is a bad album - far from that - the thing is just that it is not for everyone. Someone will like it, someone will hate it... I personally thing that this is more than interesting stuff (these guys have a hidden talent!), but they should work more harder, because some of the songs sound unfinished and production is not the best one. There is a place for improvement, so I'll just wait a next album and hope Project: Failing Flesh will keep doing the good stuff.

This is an outstanding effort by these guys, and having ex-Voivod bassist/vocalist Eric Forrest along for the ride was a good idea on their part. I would describe this as post modern industrial death metal, with the best of all worlds involved; seething guitars cranking out a variety of riffs with a nice crisp crunch tone, versatile drumming that ranges from thrash to occasional blast beats to everything in between, tastefully utilized haunting keyboards and samples, it's all there and all good. And Eric's screaming vocals add a necessary human element to the musical soundscape, really making this work. The lyrics mostly deal with the foolishness and stupidity of mankind and modern culture, and are well-written and articulate. Wrap it up in a stellar clean production job and I am there! Even a righteous cover of one of the more lesser-known Venom tunes, "Warhead", is present and done with conviction. This is righteous stuff and highly recommended!