Fleshcrawl – Bloodsoul – Review

Fleshcrawl

Bloodsoul (Black Mark)
by Chris Dick

Crushing Power is what Germany’s Fleshcrawl are all about. To expect anything different is foolish; the band has always been neck-deep in brutality. But do we have another Cannibal Corpse or Broken Hope here? I don’t think so. While Fleshcrawl play in a very brutal way, it’s not presented in the same fashion as American death metal is – that’s the difference. Fleshcrawls’s third album, Bloodsoul, is the next logical step from last year’s Impurity, giving the listener punishing death one moment, and swamp-slow movements the next. Oh, and I can’t forget the melodic parts that offer a breath of air just when it seems I’ve been under for too long. Fleshcrawl are a talented band for sure, it’s obvious on the title track and “Contribution Suicide.” So, how many of you out there think you can handle Fleshcrawl’s material? Well, how many of you think you can handle Fleshcrawl doing a grinding cover of Demilich’s (sadly disbanded) “Embalmed Beauty Sleep”? It’s almost too brutal. Analyzing Fleshcrawl’s compositional ideas really puts this into perspective as the quartet are heavily influenced by Finnish death metal acts like Demigod, of course Demilich, and perhaps Convulse. I advise anybody who thinks American death metal is brutal to check out Bloodsoul. There are plenty of surprises in Fleshcrawl that’ll keep ’em making albums for years to come.