UMUR
"Impurity" is the 2nd full-length studio album by German death metal act Fleshcrawl. The album was released through Black Mark Production in May 1994. It´s the successor to "Descend Into the Absurd" from 1992 and features one lineup change compared to the predecessor as guitarist Gero Schmitt has been replaced by Mike Hanus. "Impurity" was recorded at Unisound Studio with producer Dan Swanö (Edge of Sanity, Nightingale, Witherscape...etc.). Swanö also contributes keyboards, additional vocals, and has composed and performs the short atmospheric "After Obliteration". "Impurity" also features a cover of "Reincarnation", which is a track from the 1991 "Unholy Domain" demo by Finnish death metal act Demigod. Other than those two tracks, the remaining material on the 10 track, 34:45 minutes long album are originals written by Fleshcrawl.
Stylistically there have been quite a few changes to the band´s sound since "Descend Into the Absurd (1992)". The debut contained relatively long tracks, which featured a lot of slow doom/death parts, but also both mid-paced brutal grooves and faster deathgrind blast beat parts. On "Impurity" the former part of the band´s sound has been toned down considerably, and while there are heavier parts featured on the album here and there, "Impurity" is predominantly a mid- to fast-paced death metal album. The sound production is also quite different to the sound on the debut album, and the changes to the band´s style and sound often have the effect that the music on "Impurity" doesn´t necessarily sound like it is composed and played by almost the same lineup who recorded "Descend Into the Absurd (1992)". The songs are also considerably shorter than the case was on the predecessor.
Overall "Impurity" is a both well performed, well produced (if you enjoy the "Swedish" buzzaw guitar tone), and relatively well written album. Personally I find the songwriting a bit too one-dimensional and I miss the brutal and brick heavy doomy sections of the debut album, but a 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is still deserved.