Fleshgore is back to crush us with their new album.
Entitled Carnival of Flesh, it is the sixth album of the Ukrainian band formed in 2000 by Igor Lystopad (guitar, Mental Demise). It is also the first one with the singer Michele Borniotto, but it also marks the return of Sad (guitar), who left in 2004, joining Ruslan Drozd (bass/vocals, Relic Wave, Zorg Incorporated) and Eduard Litvyakov (drums, Etsykh, ex-Datura, ex-Fleshripper).
The band immediately attacks with Distorted Lights and its jerky rhythmic with an Old School mix that precipitates us right to the middle of the violence hurricane led by massive vocals and peaks of technicality. The frantic riffs hardly slow down to create effective moshparts like on Carnival of Flesh, the following track, which more or less applies the same recipe. We will also notice these devastating accelerations and unstoppable diversified screams, then Inhuman Existence takes over with an equally raw and direct approach of this uncompromising Brutal Death Metal. The band also adopts dissonant elements within their groove with Buried Truth, a composition which keeps the virulent approach and catchy riffs while playing with heaviness and palm mutes before Modern Arts of Slavery comes to crush us in its turn. The energetic patterns give rhythm to this martial track, then Hive of Insanity comes back to bring the complex and jerky elements between two massive moshparts, especially marked by slamming bass drum sound. Invisible Reality quickly follows with raw patterns and a high tempo served by massive drums and disturbing harmonics, and we will also find some Hardcore roots on the energetic Frail Utopia and its motivating rhythmic which will however end in a bit abrupt way. But War is an Amusement follows with a new fix of auditive brutality for a short time, then Ad Astra closes the album without any single touch of delicacy, focusing on raw efficiency while injecting some screamed choruses and more complex hints.
Fleshgore has always been a name synonymous with raw violence, and I can confirm that Carnival of Flesh lives up to that reputation. The album is straightforward, heavy and uncompromising, letting riffs relentlessly strike one after the other.
85/100