Dilemmantrauma

At this early stage in their career, Fleshpress were no-holds-barred NOLA sludge worship. Eyehategod and Crowbar seeps out of their amps and crawls right into your brain cavity. Other than "sludge" the first thing that comes to mind listening to Dilemmantrauma is "fuzz." There's enough fuzz on this 26-minute EP to choke an elephant. The songs tend to be on the faster side of things and the vocals have a decidedly black metal interpretation Mike Williams' signature style. The band may take their name from a Grief song, but this album is more methamphetamine that drawling heroin.

Riffs are Sabbath delivered at a Motorhead pace, tuned down to the point where they're practically fuzzed out bass riffs. Did I mention this album was fuzzy? I know the hyperbole can get annoying, but seriously I'm imagining a daisy chain of Big Muff pedals a mile long. Backing up all of that beautiful guitar tone are some devilishly crafted riffs. "Wah" isn't a dirty word at all on this EP; I haven't heard this much wah on a metal release since Sleep. There are couple of solos scattered here and there and while they aren't anything that'll blow your mind, they're welcome nonetheless.

Buried under all of that guitar fuzz there is, in fact, a bass guitar, as evidenced by the bass intro to "Impenetrable Thickness of Heavy Nothingness" (which ranks up there with the most ludicrous song titles ever thought up). It doesn't do anything of note other than rumble along with the riff, but it really doesn't need to at these speeds and frequencies.

Drummer Mikko Aspa (yep, the guy from Deathspell Omega and Clandestine Blaze) does a fine job of keeping up with the monolithic fury of the guitar riffs but the production buries the drums pretty deep under the fuzz, making it hard to appreciate much that he does other than the fills he plays while the guitars hold out chords. These fills are pretty interesting so it would be nice if his kit were a little higher in the mix so we could better make out what exactly is going on during the more chaotic moments.

If it were possible to vomit angrily, that's what Teemu's vocals would be imitating. They're raspy, filthy and most of all pissed-off sounding. The pure vocal anger goes quite well with this amped-up sludge. The vocals are a bit low in the mix, though, giving the effect of a lack of power. I would also appreciate a little more variation in the vocal style. These are minor gripes about an ultimately satisfactory vocal performance.

This Finnish gem comes highly recommended to fans of sludge. It might be a bit off-putting to people familiar with Fleshpress' later, more drone-oriented work as this is a straightforward sludge record without much at all in the way of experimental tendencies.