FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE – Mafia (EP)
- Posted on 07-03-2011
As a technical death metal ensemble Fleshgod Apocalypse is right up there. The riffs sounds like orchestrated machineguns fired with surgical precision. The speed, technical proficiency and production are as good as the best technical death metal bands around today. Decapitated is still the undefeated gods of tech death metal, but Fleshgod Apocalypse is not too far behind.
The sales-pitch, however, being that Flesghgod Apocalypse mixes orchestral and operatic elements with death metal like never before… is nonsense. These operatic elements are very few, most noticeable in the EP opener “Thru our Scars” and they could have been more cleverly integrated within the song structure. I happen to be an avid fan of symphonic elements incorporated with metal, when done right. Luckily for Fleshgod Apocalypse the symphonic or operatic elements are not dominating in any kind of way. If Symphonic death metal is what you crave, I suggest trying out the latest Septic Flesh or the debut of Canadian Augery instead.
My tip for Fleshgod Apocalypse is to drop your operatic inclinations and focus on heightening your already awesome technical death metal. If these guys can come up with an identity of their own incorporated into their tech death metal they still deserve success. The death metal foundation is more than strong enough to stand by itself, without any added operatic pish posh. Without doubt one of the better technical death metal releases in quite some time.