FLESHCRAWL — Into the Catacombs of Flesh (review)

FLESHCRAWL — Into the Catacombs of Flesh album cover Album · 2019 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
UMUR
"Into the Catacombs of Flesh" is the ninth full-length studio album by German death metal act Fleshcrawl. The album was released through Apostasy Records in November 2019. It´s been 12 years since the release of the predeceding album "Structures of Death" (2007), so it´s fair to say that "Into the Catacombs of Flesh" is a comeback release for Fleshcrawl. Three out of five members remain from the lineup who recorded "Structures of Death (2007)", but longstanding guitarist Mike Hanus has been replaced by Slobodan Stupar and bassist Nico Scheffler has been replaced by Manu Markowski. The only remaining original member of the band is drummer Bastian Herzog.

Stylistically the material on "Into the Catacombs of Flesh" won´t surprise anyone familiar with the preceding releases by Fleshcrawl. This sounds pretty much like they´ve sounded since album number two ("Impurity" from 1994), when they changed their original death metal style with doom metal leanings, towards a more melodic old school death metal style strongly influenced by the Swedish Stockholm sound and especially Dismember. The opening title track immediately sets the stage and it´s impossible not to think of Dismember when listening to that track. Fortunately the next track is a little different and doesn´t reek as much of Swedish worship, but Fleshcrawl generally just aren´t the most original act on the scene. They bring zero new ideas to the world and are content playing the same old school death metal style they´ve played on now many album releases.

So it´s not in the songwriting department that we find anything out of the ordinary for the style. Thankfully Fleshcrawl know how to compose an effecful death metal tune, and that saves the album from being another mediocre and quite frankly redundant death metal release. "Into the Catacombs of Flesh" features strong musicianship and a well sounding production job too, so it´s overall a good quality death metal release. A little more musical identity and a few unique songwriting ideas could have made the album even more interesting though, and as it is my rating won´t go higher than a 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Pure Negative Attitude Hardcore Punk
FREEHOWLING
Buy this album from MMA partners
Inequiem Hardcore Punk
CICADIA
Buy this album from MMA partners
Cemetery Symmetry Hardcore Punk
HUMBLE ABODE
Buy this album from MMA partners
Sadistic Memoirs Of A Psychopath Deathcore
CONSUME THE ASSAILANT
Buy this album from MMA partners
It Wasn't Supposed To Be Like This (Instrumental) Hardcore Punk
PULSES.
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Galleons - Electric Emotions
GALLEONS
Bosh66· 4 hours ago
Galleons - Elsewhere (Official Lyric Video)
GALLEONS
Bosh66· 4 hours ago
Galleons - Neon Dreams (Official Lyric Video)
GALLEONS
Bosh66· 4 hours ago
Galleons - I Travel East As Fievel Goes West Pt. 1 - Official Lyric Video
GALLEONS
Bosh66· 4 hours ago
FREEHOWLING - SCARS FT. AARON MATTS (TEN56.) [OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO]
FREEHOWLING
Bosh66· 5 hours ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed