May God Strike Me Dead

I picked up an issue of Metal Maniacs and while flipping through it I came across a little promotional add for Fleshgore's May God Strike Me Dead album. It seemd like it had some potential. The name Fleshgore sounds rather cheesy however, but I read that they are from the Ukraine (where my heritage lies) and I have been looking for some good Ukrainian Death Metal. So I decided to give them a chance.

The album is some of the best underground death metal releases I've heard in a long time. The production is a lot better than I was expecting which first starts this album off in a good direction. I enjoy the influences of both death and thrash metal that are presented on this album along with the variation in vocals and between songs. The riffs are driving, catchy, and crushing all rolled into one, with some great harmonics thrown into the mix. The drums offer a good sound as well which is heard complimenting with the vocals and guitar.

Now the only real complaints I have about the album are the lyrical structure and song-titles. Assuming that their English probably isn't quite on par with someone who has it as a first language may be grounds for forgiveness. Now my other concern is that the bass is rarely heard on the record. It would be nice to have some equality between the instruments or at least a heavy bass overtone that could work well with the guitar, drums, and vocals which are all on par.

My conclusion is that this a solid release from a relatively new death metal band whom I am expecting great things from in the future.