Review Summary: get your flesh pressed
Sludge, a genre that is not familiar with sucking. Its crushing riffage and pounding grooves are not even capable of being anything but awesome. Those who are familiar with the genre know that its solely contained of your fanny behind getting beatdown over and over again and there is nothing wrong with getting a nice face kicking once in awhile. So its time you man up and get sludged and there isn't a better way to start off than the brothers in
Fleshpress. When you think of Finland probably the last thing that comes to your mind is brutal sludge/stoner, but that's to be expected.
Fleshpress easily claim the title of brutality as their self titled proves to be nothing more than a vicious sludgedown that is heavy and hard as a fist to the face or as intense as the climax when your mouth is crunching that curb awaiting to be stomped.
Mikko Aspa the man behind the black metal band
Deathspell Omega and
Cladestine Blaze presents you the exact opposite of what you would expect and it dosen't get anymore sludge than naming your band after a
Grief song. But being a casual sludge listener I have to say this was not one of those albums you listen to where when you hear it you basically love it from right off the start, then listen for awhile then put away forever. Their self titled release sees them making their songs more accessible for the average sludge listener. It does not take hours of fourteen or fifteen minute songs of effort to listen/get into instead it is more straight forward so its smooth sludging. Later releases sort of take on the effort trait but nonetheless this proves to be a very strong first release for new listeners of the band.
The first half of the album is basically what you would find on any Grief, or Eyehategod release. Its so slow and powerful and the riffs just seem to crush farther than ever. The second half sees it more up-beat stoner songs, the atmosphere is very dark and its obvious why the band has coined the tag 'blackened stoner sludge'. While it kind of does describe the band, try to stay away from ridiculous tags such as that. The vocalist is anything but gruff as he is one of the reasons why this band is so good. Eerie in a way his painful distorted screams seem to almost blend in with the atmosphere when listening. They are not that high in the mix so you get the full on beatdown I have promised you. Overall this probably one of the most solid first releases I have heard and it is very accessible for first time listeners of the band. Hear this and then if you like it, get the rest.
