Pulverized Records

Flesh is the one man band of Peter Karlsson, who perhaps you know from Maze of Torment or Deceiver, or even Thrown. Worship the Soul of Disgust is Flesh's first release on Pulverized Records. I'm gonna cut to the chase right now - what you get here is old school Swedish death metal. Nothing more, nothing less. This is a throwback to early 90's death metal, even finding influence in Morbid Angel. Nothing about this album screams originality or new ideas, nor does anything set it apart from plenty of Swedish death metal records. This works both for and against Flesh.

While originality is nowhere to be seen (heard), that is not what this band exists to create. Flesh is a tribute to the legends that put Sweden on the map for extreme metal. You'll hear your fair share of Entombed and Dismember, here. For what he wishes to accomplish, Pete can proudly say he succeeds. Every riff and vocal line sounds lifted from some 10-20 year old Swedish death metal album, which is not to say that he has not written some truly great riffs. Those would be the highlight of the album, easily. Produced in Abyss Studios, which is the home of sometimes overproduced Swedish metal, this recording doesn't sound too terribly polished, but not quite rough enough to give it the edge that is essential to death metal of this style.

This is a solid ode to the days of old, but that's really all it is. This isn't a band to seek out and get excited about, unless getting excited about old Swedish death metal played in 2008 is what excites you these days. It is very well done, but this album offers nothing substantial even to die hard Swedish metal fanatics. What made Swedish death metal so powerful and noteable in the 90's was that the bands all shared a somewhat similar sound, but differed by enough to make names for themselves and their country, and worked to establish one of the most identifiable sounds in semi-modern metal. The artists were creating something new and powerful, feeding enough off of one another for influence, but not copying each other. To untrained ears this may sound like a perfect rendition of Swedish death, but it lacks what made the legendary bands of this style so prominent - the songwriting and the brilliant new ideas. There is no reason that Swedish death metal, 20 years later, has to be stagnant and sound the same as it did two decades ago. But, like I said earlier, originality is not his strong suit, nor his purpose. 

01. Shatahan 06:49
02. I Masturbate To Jesus Christ 05:40
03. Nights Of Funeral Bells 04:58
04. Feast On The Soul 04:35
05. Fuck The Romantic-Fuck The Gothic 04:39
06. Sluts And Whores 04:31
07. Sadistic Penetration 04:26
08. My Penis Will Be Your Opera 01:45
09. Worship The Soul Of Disgust 04:14

 7.3/10