(This is Vonlughlio’s review of the third album by the multinational group Burning Flesh, which was released in March of this year.)
I spent a recent Sunday afternoon, while recovering from an illness, catching up with some music I had missed earlier. I recalled that at the beginning of the year a friend of mine suggested the band Burning Flesh in a FB convo, and I turned to their third album Human Flesh Fertilizer. I went back and found the play-through video for an album track he had sent me and revisited it. Shame on me that I did not pay more attention back then.
This band has members from Switzerland and France and they have been an entity since 2005, releasing a demo in 2007, a debut called Unconscious Deformity in 2010, and a sophomore album in 2013, New Chaos Order. I decided to listen to those previous albums and then re-listened to the new one. Despite the constant change in members, it’s apparent that guitarists Diego and Anthony have been able to maintain a permanent vision of what the band should be, and therefore they obviously form the core of this project.
With that being said, this new release is their best effort — in fact, they have outdone themselves. Musically they have demonstrated technical precision in these songs, and that level of prowess is evident in each of the sections. But another major plus is how well they have managed to balance the elements of tech-death with Brutal Death Metal elements. The production is clean, and that also enhances the songs and the stories they are telling. From the cover to the titles and lyrics of the songs, you have a clear idea of what the story is, a story of Nature taking its time with the end of humanity.
Now this is not a perfect record. The biggest issue that I have with it is its duration. It clocks in at around 45 minutes, and in this case less would have made more of an impact. In addition, although the vocals are at times handled very well and are up to par with the music, at times they become monotonous (even with the presence of guest vocalists), and greater variation would have strengthened certain sections of the songs. Nevertheless, they are suitably vicious throughout most of the album.
To repeat, even with these misgivings, this third album is the band’s best effort, and a showcase for the musicians’ impressive level of skill. They clearly put a lot of work into this, and I do urge our readers to explore the album, because it deserves more attention.
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