Gruesome and Vile

Fleshcut is another young band to enter their lots into the Swedish death lottery, though I'd argue that this band has equal parts Entombed/Dismember and pure Floridian-inspired brutality. The band I am most reminded of is Ribspreader and their very underground approach to this roots revival. They also have a few melodic parts (as in "Basement of Torture") which recall bands like Amon Amarth.

There are enough riffs across the 10 tracks to make it an easy sell for any diehard of this old school Swedish explosion. The frenzy of "Suck Me Dry" and the big thrashing grooves of "Malevolent Act of Murder" had me ready to disembowel the next person to cross my path, and there aren't any tracks which I'd call lacking in a genuine bloodlust. What I didn't enjoy is the drum sound, it's very basic and doesn't add a lot of power to the riffing. I'm not sure if it's a matter of ability or just mixing, but they feel too weak. Crank the drums, add more 'oomph' to the toms and bass drums to give this material the crushing tone it deserves. This isn't confined to the drumming alone, but the entire album just sounds too clean (an argument I could make against some of the Ribspreader albums also).

These gripes aside, Gruesome and Vile is not a bad record and I'm never too jaded to hear more of this style. Vocalist Pate Lundberg has a brutal edge to his voice reminiscent of the great Martin Van Drunen, and the riffs are chunky and percussive. There is no question of intent here. With a better sound, these guys will slay.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

I wasn’t too thrilled about Fleshcut’s first release; the "Machine driven crushing" EP. But upon seeing them live for the first time I definitely had to admit they delivered the goods. The little I had heard off of the "Gruesome and vile" album certainly gave me hopes for a redemption, and after listening to it over and over again now I can easily state this absolutely destroys any and all opposition in the EP.

After a redundant intro (I just don’t see the point of an ambient intro) they get off to a somewhat doubtful start in "Texas flesh eaters". It just sounds like they drummer’s slacking a little in tightness at first, but they quickly recover. The initial doubt I might feel is cast aside as I realize said track is a seriously killer one. And moving forward I come to the realization it’s all great (well except for that stupid intro).

It’s easy to forget this is basically old school Swedish death metal, just for the sheer brutality they present. But with the riffing in a track like "Basement of torture" I get Unleashed flashbacks, and there are plenty of Nihilist and Dismember moments to be discovered listening through the album. However I can’t help but to pick up on some Insision vibes at times, just as some American brutality in the vein of Eternal Suffering. There’s even a hefty dose of classic thrash metal embedded in "Death evolution". As I said it’s easy to forget what we’re really dealing with; old school death metal, but flavoured with some frills and thrills to separate Fleshcut from the herd of clones.

The riffing’s very headbanger friendly, and often chugging in tempo to really get that slow-mo headbanging juices flowing. The drumming follows, but also speed things up when necessary, albeit never really reaching the point of full on blastbeats. There are a few moments when you just can’t help yourself but to get drawn into the thunderous music. But the real killer here is the vocalist, whose voice is in the forefront of the music. Fleshcut wouldn’t sound near as brutal if it wasn’t for his growl. The chorus of "Texas flesh eaters" and the sudden outburst of ferocity in "Basement of torture" is enough to prove the level of brutality the powerful vocals brings to the table. With the exception of some minor high-pitched back-up vocals it’s basically all growl, and it works great since there’s variation within the growling. Highly recommended.

Originally written for http://www.mylastchapter.net