Bloodred Massacre

When I originally heard this album about 5 years ago, I didn't like it nearly as much as the previous Fleshcrawl material. I thought it was watered down, overly melodic and way too short in comparison. But, after listening to it more and more over the past couple months I realized that "Bloodred Massacre" is just as worthy of the Fleshcrawl name as "Impurity" and the debut were. These days I enjoy this album very much; and while I'm still not crazy about the occasional melodic sections, I do consider it an excellent offering of European death metal.

Having been recorded at Abyss Studios, this album shines production-wise. The guitars sound extremely thick and menacing, the double bass drumming is heavy and as clear as day, and vocally this is Fleshcrawl's best production yet. The vocalist sounds like a throatier version of Anders Strokirk from the first Necrophobic album with a bit of Glen Benton thrown into the mix. There's also some higher pitched raspy vocals used during the chorus lines of "Hellspawn" and the title track. I have to say that I really don't care for these, but fortunately they are few and far between.

The majority of the songs on this album are mid-tempo, heavy Swedish-style death metal. The chorus sections of "Dark Dimension" contain a series of melodic Gothenburg-type leads in the vein of Gates of Ishtar and later At the Gates. I'm not the biggest fan of that particular style, but Fleshcrawl were able to take those basic melodies and play them with a dark heaviness that actually makes the song pleasing to listen to. In addition, an overwhelming amount of the riffs on this CD are more of the chunky, Sunlight Studios variety (Entombed, Carnage, etc). Listen to the song "The Messenger" - there's no watered down Gothenburg melodies on that one, just heavy fucking death metal.

Songs like "Hellspawn", "Awaiting the End" and the title track also contain a fair amount of blasting from the drummer. I really like the beginning part of "Bloodred Massacre". The drums sound great there, and the riff played overtop of everything is one of the darkest on the album. Unfortunately, the longest track on the CD ("Awaiting the End") features way too much blastbeats for my taste and because of that reason it's probably my least favorite of all. When 75% of the song is blast, everything begins to drag and I rapidly start to lose interest. I just can't headbang to that shit! The cover of Slayer's "Necrophiliac" is also pretty boring and not quite as good as the version Sadistic Intent did a while back. In fact, when I was listening to the Fleshcrawl cover all I wanted to do is grab my "Hell Awaits" LP and hear the real thing. It's unfortunate, because up to this point Fleshcrawl were on the mark with their cover abilities (Demigod and Demilich). Maybe they should just stick to covering death metal.

In the end, this is a very solid album that has potential to grow on the listener. Out of 9 songs, 4 are exceptionally killer, 3 are good and only 2 border on mediocre. The biggest downside is the 34:00 playing time, but half an hour of headbanging should be enough for most maniacs anyway! Every Fleshcrawl fan should own this.