Pillars

While it works on previous works like III-Art of Losing All, and for certain songs here, the ambiance and lack of "real" music is a pretty big annoyance. The way which Fleshpress utilizes ambiance the best has always been to space it in between ups and downs, so for a section to be a bone crushing ground zero of sludgy goodness and then teeter out to a daze of feedback and random noises works exceptionally well; then it all builds up again in some way or another. Fleshpress does this quite well with the slow to start and very spaced out notes that begin the album, but at other times they fall flat. The second and last track are complete noise, which in my mind makes them throw aways. There's enough ambiance and absence of "kool riffz" at the end of the first track and beginning of the third to make the almost six minute endeavor of nothing completely pointless.

Complaints aside, the actual meat of this album is impressive as to be expected. The opening track is probably my favorite Fleshpress song. The song begins with a lone guitar and builds up and builds at an acceptable slow pace, then medium, then hits what feels like a brick wall of pure energy that explodes in to an awesome blast beat section. That's right, a blast beat, and it works amazingly well. Thick crushing riffs crash and crash again against the surging and powerful sounding drums as the vocals agonize over all the chaos; I was completely blown away when i first heard this section.

The second track really seals the deal. It carries a really strong A Blaze in the Northern Sky/Celtic Frost groove to the beginning which completely kicks ass. The track progresses to a funeral doom pace and from there develops this really great and creepy atmosphere of distant and slowly tremolo picked guitar as the drums stomp and fade in and out, all along the vocalist howls "We are the disciples of nothingness;" I'm a bit stupid as to how to write how great a section this is, so I'll just move on.

After the second track things kind of shift to a more minimalist and atmosphere driven approach. The twenty-three minute track "Omega Monolith" isn't nearly as interesting as the first and third track are, as it showcases a more trippy feel to it. I don't really know how to describe this track well, but for whatever it is worth I don't find it too great, it doesn't have any super-awesome-mega-fantastic completely mind blowing buildups of sludge mastery which makes it pretty unrewarding. It's a twenty-three minute song that doesn't really go anywhere, kinda forgettable.

'Grave Within" is a pretty okay atmospheric track until 6:58 or so when it explodes into a powerful groove which progresses into yet another blast beat section. This seems to be a replication of the album as a whole. Plenty of meandering, not so special parts separating plenty of above par and phenomenal music. The last 2 minutes or so to "Grave Within" showcase a more black metal style which is done extremely well and is something I hope to see more of on upcoming releases.

It's very hard for me to rate this album being that I feel there's so much to throw away. With my iTunes I've completely unchecked the second track, and just pretend it doesn't exist.By the time Omega Monolith is half way done I've kind of zoned out and begun to drool, luckily "grave Within" wakes me up. Part of me would love to speak nothing but praise for this album, but the mistakes are undeniable and unable to be overlooked. It's a great album, and bit more experimental and "unsafe" for Fleshpress, but change is a good thing and I'd rather not see them repeat themselves time and time again.

If you like sludge that pushes the boundaries, and enjoy the more extreme side of metal, give Pillars a good listen.