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Fallujah > The Flesh Prevails > Reviews
Fallujah - The Flesh Prevails

Walking the Starlit Path - 91%

psychoticnicholai, August 4th, 2016
Written based on this version: 2014, CD, Unique Leader Records

The Flesh Prevails sees Fallujah moving to add more interesting complexities to their music as compared to The Harvest Wombs. We notice a change in that they go for a half progressive, half technical approach to death metal with much stronger melodies and ambiance this time around. Progressive oddities and unconventional song structures are the norm on The Flesh Prevails. With these noticeable changes, they ended up releasing one of the more bizarre and intriguing albums of 2014.

This is progressive death metal more than anything else. The instrumental passages are long, snaking, and fluid, going for dynamics in the misty nebulae of the softer passages contrasted by the otherworldly and dramatic sounds of the guitars. Complexity is boosted even further than on The Harvest Wombs, many of the songs blend seamlessly together, almost giving us a feeling as though this album was meant to be one united piece of music. It also never really gets boring due to the fact that contrast, dynamics, and rhythmic changes do their best to keep the listener intrigued. Whether it's death metal rumbling, soaring solos, ethereal ambiance, or the occasional breakdown, The Flesh Prevails offers a surrealistic look into the world beyond our skies. The songs are more melodious and complex than before and creating a setting matters more than simply showing off the band's ability to shred. The use of atmospherics is enthralling. While the songs themselves are complex, they mostly max out at around five and a half minutes and make for a short but satisfying album. While standout tracks are hard to pick out, I would say that the title track, Starlit Path and Chemical Cave are the ones that come the most to mind. The Flesh Prevails is progressive in its ambitions to build a truly bewildering and awesome piece of music.

I can definitely see this resonating with people who want something more challenging and unusual in their metal music, especially those curious about adding spacey ambiance or uplifting melodies into a long and challenging listen. This isn't for the people who just want a catchy jam to listen to. This will please most of their old fans from The Harvest Wombs who already want complex and spacey metal with some relaxing, trippy passages, but taken up to a more ambitious level. The Flesh Prevails goes to spaces where few others have gone before. If you want a truly surreal progressive space death metal experience, look no further.

The Flank Prevails - 38%

GuntherTheUndying, August 16th, 2015

If I weren’t such a gentlemen, I’d say the dudes of Fallujah have tried to force innovation. They have a bit of a history of trying to cut the line of creative evolution, which doesn’t make “The Flesh Prevails” much of a surprise. On “Leper Colony,” Fallujah did the Abigail Williams thing of adding pseudo-black metal influence to the deathcore recipe, in the process creating something that made even the most abhorrent music on the face of the planet look appetizing. During the height of the technical death metal fad, Fallujah was following suit while acting more progressive. Here, “The Flesh Prevails” continues another shift in sound, this time using a progressive death metal approach with minor shoegaze elements. The fact that it sounds as such, made during a time when the shoegaze-meets-metal thing has velocity thanks to the fart-sniffers of Deafheaven, instantly means Fallujah is ahead of the curb and pushing metal into a brave new era! Yippee skippee!

Of course, the line of thought that a band doing something foreign to a specific sound (e.g., progressive technical death metal with a shoegaze coating) is instantly respectable and worthy of praise is downright stupid. Shoehorning in any irrelevant influence and pandering it as innovation generally sets up an attractive gimmick, but not much else. The fact that “The Flesh Prevails” has created a little buzz around metal media outlets is baffling to me. Like a lot of groups trying to sell themselves as innovators, the initial exposure of whatever Fallujah tries to do here plants the seeds of infatuation, but soon the brief lure dries out and yields little to praise, save for a bud some snotty little shit could crush without even trying.

Fallujah more or less attacks from the point of view of progressive death metal, showing technical showmanship à la The Faceless or Job For A Cowboy with complex arrangements akin to Cynic and Atheist. The big problem here is that nothing the band does sticks in any way at all. They throw around complex riffs and rhythms over intricate percussion, somehow conjuring this pure, otherworldly atmosphere. While hearing “The Flesh Prevails” at first induces a sense of angelic chaos, the magic is soon lost on the constant instrumental ejaculation. Something like this is completely devoid of hooks or memorable bits lurking in the ether, instead coming off as a run-of-the-mill, disposable piece of mundane technical death metal hiding behind a progressive lens and a shoegaze façade so thin you could stick your dingus through it.

It’s actually nice when the singer walks off; a good chunk of the album features instrumentals or experimental cuts that aren’t drowned in generic deathcore-esque vocals. “Chemical Cave” has moments of serene atmosphere “The Flesh Prevails” so obviously fails to grasp, while “Alone With You,” featuring a guest female vocalist in lieu of growls, comes close to supplying at least a minor sense of enthrallment. However, the other tracks are weak, too stuck on technical ability that goes nowhere. Giving credit where credit is due, perhaps the collective skill is something to admire, but these performances have been mirrored or surpassed by countless progressive/technical death metal acts who have had better understandings and a more concise collective than Fallujah. Add the paper-thin shell of innovation, the vapid vocals, and Fallujah’s obfuscating sense of direction, and that’s “The Flesh Prevails” in a nutshell. Don’t buy into the craze; this will go in one ear and out the other.

This review was written for: www.Thrashpit.com

Traditionally misdirected techdeath. - 52%

LeMiserable, December 20th, 2014
Written based on this version: 2014, CD, Unique Leader Records

While I'm not completely biased against the album or the main style it plays, this is yet again proof that even the most proficient bands on the Unique Leader label don't really have that much to offer nowadays. As much as there is still pretty good technical death metal or deathcore around, it's pretty damn obvious that only 1% at best actually comes from the label, and if this is the best the bands on the label can put out, then it will never be any more than that mere percent. Don't be fooled, don't let anyone tell you that this is some kind of progressive or atmospheric masterpiece of modern death metal, this is basically really just technical death metal or deathcore disguised by use of djent, pseudo-jazz and near-constant shoegaze/atmospheric elements and that's really all you can say. Musically, this is nothing "more" than Beyond Creation, Severed Savior or Inanimate Existence or any similar bands. This album, at its very peak, simply uses the "how-many-riffs-and-drum-fills-can-I-cram-into-10-seconds-of-music" formula. The atmospheric or shoegaze (?) elements are pretty interesting, but I feel they're really just there to cover up the lack of originality brought to the table by the band when they made this album.

Now, don't get me wrong, bands trying to broaden their vision by stepping outside the borders of the genre they're playing are certainly things I can gain legitimate interest in, but when it's so goddamn obvious that the actual music they're trying to make is still so firmly rooted in the crappy style they're trying to escape from, it really doesn't appeal to me. I don't dislike this album for what it isn’t; I actually dislike it for what it IS. This is supposed to be some awesome blend of all kinds of modern (metal) music genres, but this is really just more of the default technical death metal you're used to hear from labels like Unique Leader.

Where this album also loses a lot of its staying power is the fact that it sounds far too busy. The production itself isn't something I'd recommend a lot of bands to use, but this album is basically as musical as a wall of sound can possibly get. I mean that's a good thing, but that also still makes it a wall of sound. As for the actual music, there isn't a single goddamn riff on this album that stays in my head, sure, there are parts and passages that I can remember after the album has passed, but none of them involve actual riffs instead of the unusual use of atmospheric elements. But then again, I suppose riffs aren't this album's main focus more than just giving you the feeling you're basically the girl on the cover (nice tit), and while the album does a nice job of simulating that sort of feeling, the actual things I'm interested in hearing from death metal are largely lost upon me.

The instrumentation on this album is good, it's not as if this album is played by mentally challenged emokids (right?) who don't wanna do anything else than being emotional, but that means fuck all if you can't write a single memorable riff to save your life. I mean, I enjoy Suicide Silence more than this, and that's purely because they write riffs/chugs/whatevers that are catchy and make me wanna listen to their stuff again. The Flesh Prevails gives one little reason to come back other than how...unusual it sounds, are there really riffs on this album that stick in your head by any chance? If they do, I suppose this is also the first metal band you've ever heard, because there are single songs from a band like Suicide Silence that provide more things to remember than this entire album. Now, every instrument on this album is played with a high level of skill, which is pretty evident judging by the first song only, but just because you can hit 5 strings per second or play 500 beats per minute, does not mean you are a good artist. Fallujah are a fine example of a bunch of really skilled guys having absolutely no fucking clue on how to write memorable songs. So the addition of "progressive" elements is actually pretty logical if you look at it that way. If you can't write a good song, why not cover it up with constant elements that distract from the music? The Faceless pulled it off pretty nicely, I'd say.

As much as I like lyrics with a poetic nature, I don't really enjoy the lyrics on this album. Apart from the fact that you can't even make them out 95% of the time as the vocals are both completely indecipherable and heavily edited during the album's creation, they aren't anything I would deem anything else than just "there". The vocals on this album are one of the main reasons this album is really just a misguided and heavily disguised technical death metal album. Standard deathcore growls...and that's it. The Flesh Prevails also make use of female vocals, and while they're pretty nice when placed correctly (Inanimate Existence's latest) they add absolutely nothing to this album, they do their job of being "there" just like the main vocals, but they really add jackshit to this album's sound.

The Flesh Prevails is really just confirmation that technical death metal on the Unique Leader label is hopeless as long as bands decide to play the formula like the one present here. And while this tries to cover up most of the genre's lack of cohesion, it becomes really obvious that there's really nothing "more" other than the atmospheric stuff that makes the record sound like more than it actually is. The Flesh Prevails is more of the same, and same sadly doesn't equal good this time around. Not particularly exciting, but not exactly a fucking trainwreck either, just very, very mediocre.

Classic Misdirection - 14%

zeingard, November 6th, 2014

This is the type of album that can be easily described with a string of synonyms: underhanded, devious, bartesque. You idiots sat around wanking off bands like Meshuggah and Between the Buried and Me: now we're living in a world where technical death metal sounds more like slightly-aggravated adult contemporary. No doubt you, the reader, have had this carefully crafted chicanery thrust upon you by a trustworthy friend, coated with lies about just how technical it is, and that Fallujah aren't just another deathcore band but manage to subvert the genre by incorporating disparate ideas and non-traditional genres artfully. You've written this person off entirely and unfollowed them on your variety of social media outlets along with people who don't shut up about conspiracy theories, paleo diets and investing in bitcoins (traits that are often not mutually exclusive).

Admittedly with the constant mentions of shoegaze elements, it was hard to divorce expectations from the idea that 'The Flesh Prevails' would simply be a weird 'Sunbather' offshoot, utilising deathcore as the foundation for the sound rather than black metal. Reverb is relentlessly abused but the only real connection to that scene is perhaps "Alone With You" sounding like an M83 b-side with conventional pop female vocals. Otherwise songs will occasionally devolve into a dead space where the guitar sublimes into a meaningless, fuzzy vapour but this does not endear the music to a genre it supposedly pays homage to. The title track has a Slowdive-esque bridge that is actually nice, and would be even more so had it not been molested on opposing flanks by exhaustingly mediocre death metal.

More often than not 'The Flesh Prevails' conjures up a production and style not dissimilar from the deluge of djent bands haunting the current metal landscape. The chugging, polyrhythmic riffing, the sanguine melody lines and the oppressively sterile production; if Godflesh-era industrial metal is the rusted shithole clanking and grinding its way through your soul, then Fallujah is the ultra-hi-tech, neo-fascistic cybernetic factory wetdream. Gleaming hospital white surfaces that refuse to harbour stains, marble columns ensconced about the vast atrium containing mathematically designed water features. With every click of your boot heel you can just barely hear the faint scream of a band with actual talent going unnoticed.

Ironically it feels dirty to admit that the lead lines are rather neat. Clean and swift; entwined into a precise but entrancing tango. You'd have to the most jaded hermit, too busy shitting in holes and wiping your ass with pinecones, to suggest that they are anything but beautiful. At times they can be overwhelmingly saccharine, tooth-achingly sweet even, but it's hard to deny such deft lead work as it floats over a morass of mass-produced djent-101 riffs. Treating this paragraph as a confessional the track "Chemical Cave" is genuinely good from start to finish. Fallujah could have written an album that was just variations of this track and I would be entirely comfortable with that but much to my dismay, they chose not to. Perhaps it is because the track is almost entirely instrumental or that it sounds like a Black Mages b-side, either way it is sublime and a perfect encapsulation of Fallujah's talent as songwriters. Unlike every other track on this album they don't attempt to find some kind of harmony between the many genres they incompetently attempt to crib from in some inane, deluded sense of innovation but instead just write some fucking music for once.

'The Flesh Prevails' provokes a sense of complete and utter dread; unfortunately it is not the album's intention. This is the type of work that will usher in a slew of talentless hacks effortlessly ejaculating a turgid stream of fuzzy, shit-kicking riffs and coated in a layer of marshmallow fluff lead lines. You only have yourselves to blame for this.

Godlike - 90%

GuardAwakening, October 27th, 2014
Written based on this version: 2014, CD, Unique Leader Records

If you've ever heard a single thing about the band Fallujah, it's probably been something positive. One can only assume so.
This California-based technical death metal outfit provides some of the freshest unadulterated tunes that you could wrap your head around. Taking their root off of death metal's heaviness with a great combined influence drawing from an atmospheric sound inspired by the most epic of symphonic proportions, I am just blown away at how this could ever be overlooked and not appreciated for the art it clearly is.

Fallujah have been criticized a few times I have seen for their instance on trying to be "too perfect" (I'm looking at you, Anthony Fantano...) but that is simply not the case. This album is about aiming for the beauty of atmospheric music combined with the extremity of extreme metal; they are not aiming to be brutal. Any idiot should be able to configure this, but I feel like I should leave this noted for people who might not be able to understand what the purpose that this band is going for. I will admit, the production of the album may seem a tad overproduced, but alas the goal for this so-called "perfect" sound is achieved through this method of production completely outweighing the root of raw brutality brought in to this style of music that was influenced from technical death metal likings ever since Suffocation.

I apologize if I'm sounding a bit too arrogant or "hipster" in this review thus-far, but let's just get on with talking about the music with an in-depth look. Instrumentally, the guitarists focus on tremolo riffs to greaten the album's casual use of background synthesizers complimenting the band's approach to atmospheric aesthetic. Bass guitar is also audible as well, especially during the band's extensive lengthy solos. Drumming is obviously very triggered, probably to fit with greater control of what they had going on in the production stages of this album. As I explained above, this album is greatly controlled with lots of production, but the end result has made something magnificent.

Vocals are usually your casual death growled badcop approach. Can't really say much about Alex Hofmann on this album. He doesn't do much for the music since I usually listen for the riffs and atmosphere when it comes to this album, but I can confirm that his vocal styles usually just fluctuate between the throaty growl as his main vocalization along with the occasional faux scream that he seemingly lets out impulsively on the fly.

Fallujah have really outdone themselves with this album. I feel like they upped their game bigtime with this release especially in comparison to their previous LP; 2011's The Harvest Worms. The band is a very solid entity to be placed in the scene of death metal and someday I hope to see them remembered in the liking of legends such as Opeth. Believe the hype; this album is insane.

Atmospheric Death Metal Masterpiece - 100%

cosmicsea87, September 17th, 2014
Written based on this version: 2014, CD, Unique Leader Records

Today, it seems hard to find bands that stand out from others, and bring their own style, originality, and creativity to the current death metal scene. But, Fallujah does exactly that, and The Flesh Prevails proves it.

If you liked their EP, -Nomadic-, released last year, this album pushed that sound further. This expressed Fallujah's signature technicality and heaviness, but was even bolder this time. More atmospheric influences were used on this record than any of their previous releases. The lyrics are eye opening and inspiring, often dealing with themes of self empowerment. Each track was memorable, engaging, and left me wanting more. The growls coming from vocalist Alex Hofmann were deep and powerful. Jazzy rhythm guitars by newest member Brian James and artistic basslines by Rob Morey gave off a dark vibe, contrasting with Scott Carstairs' dissonant solos and leads throughout each song. Andrew Baird's kick drum and blastbeats were constantly explosive throughout songs like "Carved from Stone" and "Sapphire", even during the ambient parts. Each members' innovative styles collectively blended beauty and brutality, without ever sounding inauthentic. The perfection of the entire album is still unfathomable to me, even after listening countless times. It is so easy to get lured into it's unique sound, flawlessly balancing an ethereal atmosphere and progressive death metal chaos.

Another aspect rarely used in death metal (but is present on this album): female vocals. "The Flesh Prevails", "Levitation", and "Alone With You" contain short, but breathtaking vocal lines from dark pop singer, Roniit Alkayam. Her vocals are intriguing and unique, and created moments on the album that were surely significant.

Overall, this album is majestic, stunning, and will definitely take the world of technical death metal, and metal in general, to new heights. Fallujah created a phenomenal work of art. Their brand of atmospheric death metal excelled, and they released an album that is addicting to listen to and will never be forgotten.

Murder By Book; Known Accomplices: The Cover - 92%

HeySharpshooter, August 30th, 2014

Metal is by and large traditionalist and conformist in nature. Look, texture and attitude are all things judged on top of the actual musical output, and often creates a barrier between the image conscious metal fan and anything perceived as "false". Bands and artists who do not meet a very strict set of guidelines are often mocked and ridiculed. Legitimacy, hype and credibility are as tradeable a commodity as actual musical talent; hell, entire scenes are built out of imitating other bands in look, style, sound, lyrics and attitudes. All genres of non-mainstream music have this aspect, but while other genres like indie rock and underground hip hop tend to pretend this kind of conformity craving elitism doesn't exist, metal music brazenly flies the flag of "If you are a false don't entry." Ah-fuckin-men brother.

And despite being a proud false hipster metalfag wanna be such as I am, it still surprises me how often I live by the "false can leave the hall" mantra in my own musical experiences. Take Fallujah, a band I immediately wrote the fuck off because of their pathetic fucking name, their ugly album covers, their god-awful logo and their legions of dumbshit false poser fans. A 15 year old wearing their shirt at the mall? Bring me my trve as fvck battle ax and lets cut the head of this snake before it even tries to slither it's way into my eardrum. (It's not entirely my fault. Because even though The Flesh Prevails is a truly wonderful album, as good as anything released in the realm of tech death metal in a long time, it's still a godawful thing to look at.)

The Flesh Prevails is in fact a gorgeous, brilliantly written and performed collection of songs in the tradition of Cynic, Exivious and The Conductors Departure Anata, with any residual "core" elements(such as they were) removed from the equation. Few albums truly shock me with how good they are, even when my expectations are rock bottom, but The Flesh Prevails is the first album in a long time to throw me off my game and make me re-evaluate how I go about the whole "music I like" thing. The technicality and melody of the album are not particularly unexpected, as I had an idea of what I was getting into when I jumped into this album. But the sheer song writing prowess, the moments of legitimate brutality and thick, overwhelming atmosphere of The Flesh Prevails make this one of the better standout albums of 2014 without question.

One might be prone to throw words out like "revolutionary" or "uniquely original" when talking about The Flesh Prevails. That's mistaken thinking. It's pretty much Traced in Air meets The Conductors Departure with just enough of a modern edge and signature aspects to stake a claim to some sovereign territory. Pretty, clean, tripped out Jazz Fusion-inspired sections give way to pretty, melodic, shockingly fast brutal tech death and then come back again, usually alternating between the two elements multiple times throughout each track. Certain tracks like the finale "Chemical Cave" and the self titled track delve into a mostly instrumental direction, with the melodies handling most of the singing. The occasional use of female vocals, like on the intro to "Levitation" and in the electronic instrumental track "Alone With You" are actually a very welcome break from the rather uninspired vocals: Alex Hoffman is not a bad vocalist as far as deathcore growlers go. He shows very solid power in his growl and higher register scream, unlike so many weakling larynxes(or would it be larynxi?) that seem to populate deathcore. But his overall timbre is unimpressive and his lack of personality actually holds some of the sections back.

Truth is, when Hoffman is out of the picture, The Flesh Prevails becomes a deeply atmospheric experience, filtering out some rather genuine emotion and a real sense of narrative progression. Much of this comes from the massive guitar sound, which radiates tremendous warmth and energy; the air bristles with static when the melodies begin flying around, twisting and turning with one another in swirling storms of sound. The bass sound adds much needed crunch as it slices through the mix, since the clicking, lifelessly gated and triggered drum sound is a major drag. For this particular brand of tech death one doesn't go for the whole "slab of meat getting hit with an axe" drum sound, nor the endlessly ringing snare and reverberating kick frequencies. But there comes a limit, and the drum sound on The Flesh Prevails crosses into stereotype territory. It's not as much of a distraction as one would expect however, since everything else sounds so damn good and the song writing is to stellar.

Between the melody, the lyrics and the forays into electronic soundscapes and female vocals, one would think that The Flesh Prevails would fall right into McCheeseville and stink like some rotten Gouda. Yet these elements simply coalesce with the rock solid foundations of good old brutal, jazzy tech death and give the album a vibe and listenability that makes it such a standout now a days. Tech death is often(rather fucking stupidly) accused of being soulless, lacking the kind of emotional depth or impact that true death metal should have. The Flesh Prevails simply shuts down this faulty, faux-elitist "thinking" within minutes of "Starlit Path" kicking into high gear. Through the mournful construction of melodies and tempo shifts, the album gives off an entirely different vibe from anything recently released in the realm of tech death. Other than perhaps Flourishing, there simply isn't another tech death band playing with the ideas of human emotion driving their musical conceptions, and it's a refreshing change of pace from gore and occult themes.

Despite the superb overall listening experience The Flesh Prevails delivers, it also feels like a bit of a missed opportunity. The bands attempts, however slight, at staying connected to their deathcore past, the poor drum production and the not so subtle nods to other great albums; it all adds up to a rather nasty blemish on the face of this rather angelic entity. And it's only when those mistakes are corrected that Fallujah can start laying claim to greatness. But for what The Flesh Prevails is, there are few listening experiences as dynamic or enjoyable.

A Breath of Fresh Air in the World Of Tech Death - 94%

CletusChrist94, July 30th, 2014

I remember when I first heard the band Fallujah, it was about a year ago when I heard their Nomadic EP, I had thought it was a pretty good short album, with some good moments, but that was about it. I'm really not a fan of new "tech" death metal, where all the bands kind of sound the same and fall into the category of monotony. However this band did leave a good taste in my mouth, so when I heard that they were releasing their second album this year, I waited with interest to hear it.

Well the response that I can give it is extremely warm and praiseworthy. Each song packs quite a punch in terms of beauty and brutality. Each member of this band comes together in quite a cohesive manner and the result is this great album. I also find that this album, does not fall into the extreme metal paradox of monotony and not being able to distinguish between tracks. Each song on this album has it's own sound, and variety.

Although this album has most of it's roots in the technical death metal genre, there are definitely moments where it ventures into other genres. There is some deathcore, but not horrible, brainless, deathcore that seems to infect the genre, the positive aspects of the genre are used and not "over"used. There is also a hint of progressive in the music where the songs will keep building upon itself and change itself midway through with some ethereal male and female vocals that are used very tastefully. Last but not least i can hear a clear influence from shoegaze in some of the guitar lines that seem to sound like they came off of a My Bloody Valentine, or Slowdive album where they decided to give extreme metal a try.

The vocalist is a typical death metal/deathcore vocalist, but does not come off as contrived, or redundant, each vocal line is delivered with power and emotion whether it's his growl, or occasional rasp. The guitarists as said before are very well played on this record. Although there is some "noodling" that can be heard, this noodling is not the 'holy shit this is fucking boring" noodling, the guitars seem to ravel the listener and unravel their ears in an instant, keeping him/her hooked on every riff and solo. The bass is audible (awesome!) and is played very well. The drums blast through the album at light speed and give the listener a treat with great fills. There is also a great deal of programming, and synth work on this album which give the album an angelic, ethereal atmosphere that really set the tone for the album's sound along with the beautiful cover art which as said before is a duality between beauty and brutality.

Concluding this review I will say that there is no reason why someone who loves progressive metal, or modern tech death should not own this album. It's a great record filled with fresh ideas in a genre that seems to be running very low on them. Everything about this record is great and have something for everyone to enjoy. Hopefully this band keeps on going in their evolution and keeps on trying to perfect their musical ideas. I can honestly say that this album was well worth the listen and will be cherished as one of this years best releases.

I was not expecting to like this as much as I do. - 87%

Sigillum_Dei_Ameth, July 30th, 2014
Written based on this version: 2014, CD, Unique Leader Records

Before I listened to this album about approximately 48 hours ago upon writing this review, I really didn't even know who this band was. And it's not because I'm one of these staunch ultra-conservative metal fans who reject anything and everything different and new, it's because I simply didn't know who they were and didn't really hear their name. At all. Then I came across a thread on a random Facebook group talking about albums that were major letdowns and this one came up. I decided to give it a shot. And I'm glad I did.

Fallujah is a band I would not regularly listen to as far as style goes. Yeah I can dig Voivod, Atheist, Cynic, Cryptopsy and "Obscura"-era Gorguts plus I'm already a fan of Queensryche, Rush, Yes, so I already listen to progressive type bands. And it's hard for me to get into progressive type bands because a LOT of them are weedly-weedly-woo-dun-dunna-dunna-dun shit that goes all-over the place without direction. Especially when you start mixing technical and progressive influences in a metal band because let's be honest; it gets REALLY fucking pretentious. I don't care for Necrophagist. Not even a big fan of Dream Theater. Could give a shit less for Meshuggah. And I really think "Symbolic" and "Individual Thought Patterns" are some of the most over-jocked fucking albums of all time. But regardless I kept an open mind about this one and I know some internet metal nerd is going to read this and get massively pained in his neckbearded posterior region, possibly spewing Mountain Dew all-over his computer monitor. But fuck'em. This is an excellent sophomore album. And possibly one of the better technical/progressive death metal albums I've heard in a while. Yes I said death metal because this album throws out all the deathcore traces from their first album. Which that part helped.

If you were to take equal parts Decrepit Birth, The Faceless and throw in this really ambient/shoegaze-ish texture to the music(think Cocteau Twins) , you would get this album. Don't worry this isn't Deafheaven(gross-as-fuck hipster shit) so no need to fret. I'm not exactly fluent in the art of world salad as far as describing most of these sounds outside of describing a breakdown, a double kick part, and gutteral vocals, so forgive me while this might seem a bit short. It's really hard to tell who stands out on this album as far as musicianship is concerned, but I will note vocalist Alex Hoffman as having an excellent range of gutteral style. There are also some female vocals and some parts where it sounds like he's trying to do the whole Paul Masvidal robot vocals ala-Cynic. But all it does is add onto the various textures and colors. Past that the guitarists are just doing some really good schizo-like riffs that HAVE direction. That's a big important factor that keeps my attention. The bass you can really hear quite well with it's "bongs" and pops and other sounds it is known to make in the hands of a proficient musician. If anything and I'm surprised nobody has brought up this comparison; they are an updated Lykathea Aflame. Nothing more, nothing less.

Clocking in with 9 songs it's hard to pick a personal favorite. This all blends in so well that it's really hard to pick out personal favorites. I will say there are amazing parts and riffs because with this type of music there are just that....moments where you think "Holy shit can these riffs get any more heavier?" Yes they do. There is one riff in the opening of "Carved From Stone" that sounds EXACTLY as the diabolic opening harmony of Slayer's "South Of Heaven"...I shit you not. This will twist and turn you inside-out in an ocean of maximum distorted sub-end vexation and audio beauty. The instrumental track "Allure" is fucking breath-taking. Other songs that stand-out are "Starlit Path", "The Flesh Prevails", and "Alone With You". Again there are no filler tracks and another pro to this album is that the songs get more and more epic and even better and the album progresses. So there is a lot of variety going on in this album.

Overall, again I'm just really surprised with this. Completely blew me out of the water and I can see this album sticking around in my music collection for a good while. If you go into this with an open mind and not be a total neck beard about shit worrying about stupid minuscule crap like it doesn't sound like Nile or Necrophagist, you just might be surprised yourself.

Social media background music. - 0%

bitterman, July 24th, 2014

It's sad to see Unique Leader, a label that once made the (futile but admirable) attempt to stem the flow of mediocrity and complacency in death metal is now in the business of selling fashionable media products in (allegedly) "death metal" clothes to pander to the lifestyle demands of the modern "emo/wigger" hybrid's compulsive need for hoarding vapid nonsense to "be hip". When an album's marketing campaign includes the words "hyped" and "dropped", it's usually a bad sign. Considering the bass player was in a band that had Deafheaven members, I knew this would be bad (the "blast beats over shoegaze" parts of Deafheaven can be found here). Indeed, this is the continuation of the Deliverance style rape of underground metal by wiggers/emos.

When the beginning sounds like a Sigur Rós b-side interrupted by mathcore noodling and tek-deaf/metalcore hybrid riffs, you know this is going to be bad. Forget the mention in the press release of this "band’s commitment to crafting forward thinking music" and supposedly having "paved the way for a new melodic and atmospheric perspective on death metal". Fallujah is more of the same deafkore garbage, right down to the "get down and dance" mechanical groove nonsense and the lite-jazz/mathcore/shoegaze/Devin Townsend shoehorning after inconsequential "bR002@L" parts which sound lifted from any other deaf-core album. It literally sounds like the most generic of Unique Leader records bands tek-deaf riffs (is someone there ghost writing all these albums?) sandwiched between indie/post-rock table scraps and chugging metalcore leftovers.

I'm sure they think they're being real "progressive and different" by throwing out parts for new ones, but nothing here is arranged in any order of importance. Just chugging and obvious emotional ("emo") appeals ("heavy stuff" going to whiny "soft" parts for "dynamics") made more obnoxious by the constipated faux-growls bands like Whitechapel use and occasional clean vocals that further add to the "stolen from a Devin Townsend cd" nature of a lot of the parts. A "complex and melodic" solo that sounds lifted from old video games ("fusion" noodling makes an appearance too, of course) will rise from the incongruous muck to make you think something important is happening, but it's just the same old tired "deafkore recorded on a pro-tools loaded laptop" music (actually muzak). The lyrics speak of "social failure" but, again, it's the same boring lyrics that were meant to pacify bored Zeitgeist watching teenagers with additional "emotional" sprinkling on top for an easy to grasp "poetic" approach. It seems like the whole thing was written using some kind of flow-chart process ("okay, post-rock here, get some blast beats there to remind people that we are allegedly a metal band, throw some mathcore junk there to show we're creative, and SELL SELL SELL to people on facebook"). This whole album might as well have been released by Abiotic, The Faceless, The Zenith Passage, etc.

This album wasn't the byproduct of a creative process, it's a product aimed at a specific audience for the sake of easy press, money, keeping of endorsement deals, etc. This album is no different than watching an online video of an up and coming guitar virtuoso putting on a technical suite that spans genres/techniques. Sure, the instrumentation is top notch but the music means nothing because it wasn't written with any artistic intent in mind. Think of a guitar manufacturer's demonstration video ("this pickup is heavy, but when you use this one you can get real jazzy AND bluesy so it's versatile") and you'll have an idea over this albums lack of focus.

What's surprising is that Unique Leader is now contributing to underground music's assimilation by the Lorde and Skrillex crowd (Fallujah and Rings of Saturn). Fallujah have succeeded in mastering the art of deception to sell metalcore products to wiggers under the pretense that it's "death metal"; gaining accolades from the unwise and even fooling the now debauched Unique Leader in the process. This album shows flesh prevailing ($$$$$) but zero spirit, and thus will be left in the dusts of time (the future of all flesh) as being another useless media product. For fans of "package deals" and "Halo 4", this is another addition to your collection of soon to be pawned/discarded media products, but for people who want to discover complex and progressive death metal in an ungentrified state (that's actually death metal and not a post-rock/mathcore hybrid with alternate picked tek-deaf nonsense to appeal to wigger/emo hybrids), seek out the recent Demilich compilation instead (doesn't come with a pint glass though). Avoid this brain bleaching Fallujah fiasco (and anything on Unique Leader at this point) at all cost.

And so too the spirit - 90%

autothrall, July 24th, 2014
Written based on this version: 2014, CD, Unique Leader Records

Serving as both an evolutionary leap forward for the San Franciscans, and a modern day analogue for Cynic's classic Focus, The Flesh Prevails is one of those records I sat down with expecting only a tepid reaction, but came away feeling this was the best solitary experience I've had in the technical death metal field thus far in 2014. That's not to imply that it is by any measure some straightforward, brutal exhibition of musical proficiency like a lot of Fallujah's West Coast peers, but a unique record which blends a lot of sublime New Age and jazz fusion styled guitar effects with the melodious precision and surgical incision of the aforementioned Cynic or Swedes Theory in Practice, taking it to an entirely different level. I'm also reminded a little of Lykathea Aflame's Elvenefris, not that the two discs sound much alike, but they both have that penchant for a combination of simplistic melodic, synthesized components with hostility...though where that Czech anomaly is founded more on a grind ethic, this has a more acrobatic guitar wizard feel to it, which when bound to the 80s-like ambient tones and tasteful use of ethereal female vocals, seems as ridiculous as it does refreshing.

First I must mention the drums here, which are astounding, not solely for Andrew Baird's obvious blasting ability and effortless technique, but for his willingness to flush out those fills and implement some tasty higher pitch percussion to balance off the business of the slick snare/kick patterns. It's one of those rare recordings of which I could honestly just shut off the rest of the tracks and enjoy the amount of effort and finesse put into the beats alone. But that's not to take away the rest of it, the swerving and colliding bass guitar mechanics which give it a lot of that Cynic feel, or the pinpoint rhythm guitars which shift between clinical death/thrashing patterns, hyper melodic death and the more pummeling intensity we equate with a lot of their Unique Leader peers. Certainly there is an undercurrent of post-Human Death here, much like a band such as Decrepit Birth exudes, but with that obvious added level of brutality which you would never have heard out of Chuck Schuldiner's 90s transformation. The leads are honestly one of the weaker elements to the recording, but that's saying a lot, since they're all well-constructed, technical spectacles of shred inspired by both the fusion gods of the three prior decades and the fret-lords like Steve Vai, Satriani etc who ran concurrent as a mainstream alternative to that musicians-only scene.

Where this disc really stood out for me is how it will just mete out this minimalistic sequence of melodic notes, much like Fredrik Thordendal of Meshuggah/Special Defects fame would do on records such as Destroy Erase Improve, and you get this unified disparity of throttling intensity and transcendent airiness. Intros to songs will often involve cleaner guitar passages that ramp up fluidly into the riffing barrages, and that great use of the female vocal, which in many situations would sound absolutely cheesy on an Enya level, but here just blends in with the magnitude and scope of what Fallujah are pursuing. Production is polished to a vorpal edge, but there's also a lot of depth due to the mix and multi-tracking which gives it a stereophonic, radiant, futuristic aesthetic...like you are actually listening to this panning at you from a cloud-top throne, rather than through a headphone jack. The Californians were well on their way to such a sound with this album's 2011 predecessor The Harvest Wombs, but that was not so much about this sort of progressive balance as just getting the heavy correct, and while I did enjoy that to a degree this just exceeds it on so many levels...Fallujah have written something here that I'm going to spin repeatedly through this and several subsequent years at the very least, a dynamic whirlwind of calm and storm.

If I found any component of the disc to be lacking, it might be the guttural vocal performance of Alex Hoffman, which in any other band of its scene would seem perfectly adequate, but against the wealth of ideas presented through the instrumentation does come up somewhat bland. However, through the use of reverb, panning, and occasionally layering in of a Deicide-style snarl/growl combo, even he manages to embrace the shifting currents so crucial to upgrade The Flesh Prevails from a compelling technical exhibition to something with more emotional impact. The lyrics are personal and poetic, decent with the exception of the ambient/electropop lead-in piece "Alone With You", to which the words are obvious and groan inducing, but musically I didn't have much of an issue with the tune...it will appeal to people who enjoyed Yoko Kanno and Origa's collaborations on the Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex anime, for instance, which I really enjoy. But I found that those are really the only two areas in which the chinks in the armor of this record are revealed.

Ultimately, the clean vocals (female and a few faint male lines) and synthy melodies will prove an instant turnoff to that same niche audience which is likely going to (i.e. already does) hate the band for its production style, deathcore roots, and emphasis on flashy musicianship anyway, but even to those folks I want to exclaim 'we already had 35 records these last two weeks which sound like Autopsy...sweet, wonderful...now how about spending 42 minutes with something else for a change?' Fallujah's full-length sophomore is not perfect, but it does instill some faith in me that a band can put the pedal to the metal of proficiency and production standards while still writing something inspired and important. No, The Flesh Prevails is not for everyone. Nothing is. But it IS an exception, an exemption from the trending now, challenging and curiously accessible in one, and I have already listened the shit out of this record, with no plans to stop anytime soon.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com