UMUR
"Made of Flesh" is the 7th full-length studio album by German death metal act Fleshcrawl. The album was released through Metal Blade Records in February 2004. It´s the successor to "Soulskinner" from 2002. There´s been one lineup change since the predecessor as guitarist Stefan Hanus has been replaced by Oliver Grbavac.
Stylistically the material on "Made of Flesh" continue the old school death metal style of the previous releases by the band. It´s a style of music they´ve pretty much played since their second or third album (their debut album is vastly different sounding from the remainder of their output). The music is highly influenced by the Swedish scene and especially Dismember is a huge influence on Fleshcrawl´s sound. Sometimes to a point where they sound like a clone of their Swedish influence. Even the sound production sounds similar to the sound productions on some of Dismember´s releases. The buzzing Swedish guitar tone, the way the vocals are placed in the mix, and the way the rhythms are played.
As such the material are well written and pretty powerful death metal, and the album opens fairly strong with "Beneath a Dying Sun", and the quality of the material is pretty consistent throughout. Not many tracks stand out though, and it´s not more than a couple of tracks into the album before you realise that "Made of Flesh" is a bit of a one-dimensional affair. It´s well produced and well performed, but the compositions lack the final magic touch to elevate them above standard level for the genre. The whole clone situation isn´t a positive either, but at this point it´s almost useless to complain about, as it´s obviously a conscious choice by Fleshcrawl not to try and forge a more unique sound. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is warranted.