Homicidal Necrophile

At first, this album does not accurately represent itself.  That is to say, the intro is composed of riffs that are repeated four-eight times each with minimal effort in songwriting, zero portrayal of talent, and anticlimactic melodies.  Despite the awful intro, do not be deterred because the rest of the album is a complete joyride, taking the listener through relentless riffs, fast, even melodic solos (especially melodic for brutal death metal), and grotesque themes (as the album cover portrays).

With track titles like "Ejaculating on the Faces of the Aborted," "Hogtied and Deep Fried" and "Infatuation with Menstruation," this is pretty much your typical gore-obsessed brutal death metal act.  Sounding like a less raw Brodequin, Flesh Hoarder pull off a nice sound with, especially as most brutal death metal bands are pretty boring nowadays.

The riffs on here are actually pretty original.  There are fast segments in every song and quasi-slams scattered throughout the album.  This may seem pretty typical, but this time around, a band has actually gotten the formula right.  Noteable riffs can be found on "Hogtied and Deep Fried," a song that shows a lot of speed as well as a disturbing intro, "Necrotic Slut Chunks," and "Human Drapery."  All of these tracks show that Flesh Hoarder are capable of playing their instruments and playing them well.

As for the production of this album, it's pretty good, especially for a brutal death metal band.  It's not too gritty, but it's clean enough for the listener to hear all of the solos and riffs.  I mentioned Brodequin before.  Their sound is very muffled and dissonant because of the production, and it only got worse as their albums progressed.  If Brodequin had good production, I bet they'd sound like Flesh Hoarder.  These guys deserve the production they have because some of these riffs get technical (that is, technical for brutal death metal).

Another thing I would like to point out is the album structure.  The good songs are properly distributed throughout the album, giving the album actual flow.  Maybe bands like Cephalotripsy and Epicardiectomy should listen to this album and take some notes.  This is a great album and I'm fairly surprised that it isn't a bigger hit among metalheads than it is.  Point is, the album has a nice flow that isn't interrupted by slams and breakdowns, something that becomes a barrier once slams and breakdowns are incorporated into one's music.  This is because Flesh Hoarder do their slams and breakdowns right.

In total, there's really nothing to complain about with this release.  It's a fast, refreshing debut from a relatively young brutal death metal act.  The production, songwriting, musicianship, and structure are all great.  The only problem is that intro track.  If only they swapped the intro track for "Abuse of a Corpse," the other instrumental on here  Then this problem would have been fixed because "Abuse of a Corpse" is actually a good track.  I look forward to another release by these guys.  I would call this album one of my favorite brutal death metal albums so far this year.

Overall Rating: 97%

Originally written for themetalvoid.wordpress.com