Many a band have popped out the bum of Brum and that’s Birmingham UK if any of our overseas readers were wondering. Towers Of Flesh are a new one to me although the trio have been involved in others I do know such as Warlord UK & Funeral Throne both bands impressing at recent Armageddon and Deathfest’s and Haizum whose Temple Of Diseased Flesh was similar in name to this lots assumed moniker.
This six track debut was mastered by Mick Kenney who should need no introduction and it packs a powerful punch. By nature this is extreme and it has one of those sounds that does not ally itself to either black or death metal but contains parts of both as well as quite a complex array of ideas that do take a while to get to grips with. After a nice melodic opening we burst into ‘As Above, So Below’ and I do like the way the second part of that title is inverted on my CD cover. This is punishing stuff with a meaty drum sound and guitar parts and bellowed vocals fleetingly reminding a bit of a collision between Watain and Behemoth, which if you think about it is pretty much a stylistic marriage made in hell. Melodious guitar leads take us into a labyrinth realm on ‘Bringer Of The Flame’ and everything is steeped in a mystic fervour akin to a hidden order flagellating themselves in time to the ever constant powerful drumming. Sudden vocal cavalcades are distorted and fly out the speakers virtually taking your head off and dragging it off to the lower echelons of hell. Songs are well constructed and thought out, the meat is really found on the four main ones wrapped around the atmospheric opening and closing instrumental. Once you get acquainted with the intricacies of songs such as ‘Renounce Thy Flesh’ it’s pretty easy to let the simpler things take over and simply head bang along to it.
The group’s MySpace page states that Towers Of Flesh take themselves very seriously and with this conviction, a solid debut and the gearing up for live dates with an extended line-up I can only imagine that we are going to be hearing a fair bit about them in the future.
http://www.myspace.com/towersofflesh
