FALLUJAH — The Flesh Prevails (review)

FALLUJAH — The Flesh Prevails album cover

Album · 2014 · Technical Death Metal

4.5/5 · 2014-10-22
adg211288

The Flesh Prevails (2014) is the second full-length album by US death metal act Fallujah. It's been three years since the release of their debut The Harvest Wombs (2011) but they did put out an EP called Nomadic (2013) in that time. They've changed line-up slightly since Nomadic though with the introduction of new guitarist Brian James, who replaces Rob Maramonte.

I have not yet managed to hear The Harvest Wombs but I have heard Nomadic and the three songs that EP contained were more than enough to make me very interested in where Fallujah may take those ideas in a full-length context. The music found on The Flesh Prevails on the surface is well played technical/progressive death metal with deep growling vocals. Catch the album at one of those moments and it may come across as nothing you haven't heard before many times over and you could almost be forgiven for putting it down as something that can be safely ignored.

Almost, as that would be an absolutely dire mistake.

Because that's really just the surface of The Flesh Prevails. Once scratched the more atmospheric details emerge, particularly ambient and post-rock influences, many of them pretty overt in their use. Calling The Flesh Prevails an atmospheric death metal album is in many ways more accurate than technical death metal or even progressive death metal. Whatever you want to call it though, it's abundantly clear that this isn't a normal death metal album of the tech/prog kind by any means. The ideas heard on Nomadic have been further honed and the end result is one of those albums that is instantly remarkable, fresh and a genuine pleasure to stick on for repeated spins.

As I said in my last Fallujah review for Nomadic, as far as extreme metal goes it's usually black metal acts that push the boundaries of their genre more. In recent years though the death metal acts seem to be catching up. We've had several symphonic death metal acts making names for themselves such as MaYaN, Fleshgod Apocalypse and of course Septicflesh and with an album like this one Fallujah look set to more than ever make atmospheric death metal a thing. As far as genre development goes The Flesh Prevails may just be the most important release I've heard this year.

It's certainly one of the best death metal releases as it is, with a near perfect flow across the nine tracks and the various ideas that go into Fallujah's sound. Nothing ever seems forced or unnatural. The atmospheric parts are equally powerful as the most aggressive passages of the music. Instrumental sections such as the ones that open and make up the bulk of final track Chemical Cave are especially a treat. There's no valid reason why The Flesh Prevails should not be counted among the upper echelons of 2014's metal albums.

more than 2 years ago
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adg211288 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Not even in the vocals. Maybe I haven't listened to enough core stuff to realise it, but to my ears there's nothing untoward about them to affect my enjoyment of the album (and vocals are often what kills an otherwise decent album for me if I don't like them).