Asunder / Like Flies on Flesh

Asunder and Like Flies On Flesh... Asunder have made a decent name for themselves as being some high-quality death-doom. Like Flies On Flesh, on the other hand, went by relatively unnoticed, mostly because they were so short-lived, which is quite a shame.

Asunder kick off this split with some very nice death and doom. The guitars are muddy, the production being rather on the raw side, belting out excellent slow and mid-paced riffs, which are sometimes even catchy. The vocals are good, your typical death metal growls at half-pace. The drums drive the music properly, but are nothing too special, but no where near lack-luster.

All in all, a very good way to start.

Now, here's where things get interesting. Asunder end their half of the split with a brief piano-centric symphonic piece before Like Flies On Flesh start their half.

Like Flies On Flesh are (were) a rather interesting band. They put out a nice mixture of sludge / doom with a nice dose of thrash. The riffs, like Asunder's, are top-notch, and rather catchy. The drums are excllenet and really push the music. As a whole, though, the production on thsi end of the split is rather lacking, but very much a forgiveable short-coming. The vocals are really where it's at on this half of the split. Jamie Myers, who has done vocals for USBM stalwarts Wolves in the Throne Room, gives an excellent vocal performance. Her vocals range from very nice, melodic singing, to some vile sludge screaming with Tony Diaz and Westbrook Johnsen (weird name) supplying some additional growls and backing vocals to round it all off.

Overall, an exellent split from death-doom greats Asunder and the very unfrotunately short-lived Like Flies On Flesh. Highly recommended for metal fans in general, especially doom fans, as this album has a very diverse appeal (especially on the seocnd half).

First of all this record is deluxe as shit. It comes with not one but two posters, one for each band and both posters are pretty sweet. The artwork is awesome with this record which is something that Asunder does pretty well with their releases.

This is the kind of record that at first the music didn’t seem that impressive to me. I had heard “A Clarion Call” which I thought was amazing, but this split wasn’t really all that interesting to me. I listened to the Like Flies on Flesh side once and thought it was alright but wasn’t really that into it. Then a few months later my friend told me he was really getting into old Asunder and that Like Flies on Flesh was a pretty sweet band too so I thought I would check it out again, and man was I impressed after listening to it again for a while. It just takes time to grow on you.

The Asunder side is much rawer than anything else that they have released. You won’t find a cello here, but what you will find is some straight up heavy fucking DOOM. I can’t convey how awesome the first two tracks are on the Asunder side in words. Just imagine Asunder, a little less produced but in a good way, with awesome heavy parts and just as awesome fast parts. Dino even goes so far as to do some black metal screams at one point, which is fucking awesome. For the longest time I was only really into the Asunder side, but the Like Flies on Flesh side is surprisingly good as well.

They remind me of a mix between Wolves in the Throne Room, Weakling and Ludicra. I’m not positive on this but I’m pretty sure that the girl guest vocalist from Wolves in the Throne Room on “Diadem of the Twelve Stars” is the same chick from Like Flies on Flesh but I could be mistaken. Either way Like Flies on Flesh kills. They’re not extremely fast but they’re awesome in the same ways as the three bands mentioned above. The vocals on this album are sweet, and with good speakers you can tell that there’s a lot more going on with this album than you can hear at first. I’m no expert on album production but it sounds like there is a lot of different layering going on which gives it a very unique feel. All in all this split is amazing and if you like good blackened doom metal you should check this out. It’s unique and fucking badass.