Hey there tech fiends, it's that time of the week again. Before we dive into today's focus, here's the usual reminder that if you're looking for more sick music, all prior editions of this series can be perused here.
As of the past few years, technical melodic death metal has been sweeping the scene from Alterbeast to Inferi to endless others. Outside of those who do it at the highest level like Inferi, so much of it draws too heavily from either The Black Dahlia Murder or Vale of Pnath which truly has started to bore me when checking out a lot of the new technical melodic death groups. Unflesh is the best new technical melodic death metal I’ve heard in some time, there is zero The Black Dahlia Murder or Vale Of Pnath influence to be found here and it’s all the more unique for that. That being said, Arsis is probably the best band to compare Unflesh to. It has a traditional side to it, super melodic nature, dark, yet also quite technical, with a thrash metal bite to it in spots. The band's new album, Savior comes out on Friday and we've got the full early stream below.
Beyond the obvious comparison to Arsis, Savior is infused with a Revocation-like tech-thrash vibe and energy, some Obscura and Necrophagist influence, and rounded out by a ton of blackened Dissection and Emperor influence. The end result is blackened technical melodic death that's quite versatile. The frankly absurd and jaw-dropping solos is another highlight throughout Savior and are where I hear their Necrophagist influence rear its head the most.
While Unflesh favors uniformity and consistency overall from song to song, they deviate enough per song with small flourishes and standalone passages that keep things interesting and engaging at all times. This is one of those albums where it’s high-quality consistency and uniformity is actually a positive selling point. To be clear, the band does do a great job at mixing up the focus and emphasis on the different aspects within their sound enough from song to song to keep it fresh and every member lays down an impressive performance. After the haunting instrumental intro to album opener “Savior” ends and the song kicks into high gear, the album’s frenzied onslaught continues near unabated track after track until the calming outro on crushing album closer “Disintegration God” sublimely wraps up the experience in similar tranquil and almost cinematic fashion to how it began.
I was already a fan of Unflesh prior to Savior, their 2016 EP was quite the impressive one-man band offering supplemented by Hannes Grossman's killer drumming that I enjoyed enough to cover here. Yet it’s their evolution on Savior that sees them really coming into their own sound and style wise. So check out our early stream of Unflesh –Savior below and if you’re digging it, physical copies can be ordered through the Unflesh Website and in digital format through the Unflesh Bandcamp page. You can follow the group over on the Unflesh Facebook page.
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