Defleshed - Royal Straight Flesh
2003 - Regain Records
By Philip Whitehouse
Go to the Regain Records website.
I always worry when a band sees fit to invent their own genre tag to describe their music - hence, my slight twinge of concern when upon my premilinary bit of research into the band's history, I noticed them referring to themselves as 'solid metal'. Well, you can safely dismiss that tag as meaningless bollocks (although most genre tags are equally meaningless), since Royal Straight Flesh seems to continue Defleshed's tradition of fusing hyper-speed thrash metal to the aggression and brutality of death metal. Picture God Dethroned jamming with Nuclear Assault, or Gorerotted jamming out Slayer songs, and you're pretty close to nailing their sound.
Stampeding through eleven songs in a mere 32 minutes, this is a no-filler, stripped-down, raw assault of pure savagery. Mathias Modin's precise, speedy drumming sets the standard for musical wizardry in the band, while Lars Lofven peels out riff after riff of prime metallic awesomeness. While the music isn't particularly complex in it's arrangement, it manages to be varied and impressive while sticking rigidly to a full-steam-ahead blueprint.
Consistent, savage and compelling, this is a record that may finally see Defleshed getting some appreciation outside of the more clued-up members of the underground and taking their impressive form of 'solid' metal to the next level.
8.5/10
2003 - Regain Records
By Philip Whitehouse
Go to the Regain Records website.
I always worry when a band sees fit to invent their own genre tag to describe their music - hence, my slight twinge of concern when upon my premilinary bit of research into the band's history, I noticed them referring to themselves as 'solid metal'. Well, you can safely dismiss that tag as meaningless bollocks (although most genre tags are equally meaningless), since Royal Straight Flesh seems to continue Defleshed's tradition of fusing hyper-speed thrash metal to the aggression and brutality of death metal. Picture God Dethroned jamming with Nuclear Assault, or Gorerotted jamming out Slayer songs, and you're pretty close to nailing their sound.
Stampeding through eleven songs in a mere 32 minutes, this is a no-filler, stripped-down, raw assault of pure savagery. Mathias Modin's precise, speedy drumming sets the standard for musical wizardry in the band, while Lars Lofven peels out riff after riff of prime metallic awesomeness. While the music isn't particularly complex in it's arrangement, it manages to be varied and impressive while sticking rigidly to a full-steam-ahead blueprint.
Consistent, savage and compelling, this is a record that may finally see Defleshed getting some appreciation outside of the more clued-up members of the underground and taking their impressive form of 'solid' metal to the next level.
8.5/10
