A new blacked death metal act in the upstate New York area is that of Fleshspoil, though it’d be remiss to not mention that these three players have been involved in the metal scene for a very long time. We have guitarist/vocalist Jeff Andrews and drummer Mike Van Dyne, both most recently of The Final Sleep (as well as numerous previous projects) as well as bassist Dan Saltzman (Illucinus). But to also leave the band in the ‘blackened death metal’ tag would be an extreme injustice considering the widely varied influences present on their debut, The Beginning of the End.
With six tracks totaling 37 minutes, each of the songs takes their own journey through a mix of metal subgenres, truth be told. Opener “Bleed Through this Life” takes little time to showcase the band’s varied prowess at hand. Beginning with some eerie and blackened melodies and working up a slow build with ear-grabbing melodies, it eventually escalates into some blasts and more raging death metal. It provides some bludgeoning riffs as the tempo eases and they pelt the listener with them as the tempos swing back and forth, until a more macabre doomy downswing slows the band to a devastatingly, lumbering halt. It’s a fantastic transition that allows them to later bring back the eerie melodies from the opening in a cleaner fashion. It’s these big shifts, never jarring or ‘out of left field,’ that gives the album this spark of intrigue, and they take full use of their extended runtimes.
“Skies Turn to Graves” follows next and continues to paint a wide color palette within the extreme zone. Some nods to Andrews and Van Dyne’s The Final Sleep come in here with a clean vocal segment that feels like a bit of euphoria amongst the more brutal terrain. A fantastic melodic moment that does as much instrumentally as it does vocally. The contrast with the battering death metal makes for a frantic clash, particularly when the band builds up into more frenetic sections with blasting drums and bellowing growls. “Fleshspoil” thrives off of an addictive rush of militant drumwork and devastating riffs, even though it relents to some beautiful melodies around the midpoint. But if one track stands up as being all about the riff, it’s this one. “A Frail Demise” also works out some glorious high speed melodies and has them mix it up with more punishing mid-tempo crushing riffs, and even flirts with a small amount of power metal. To end things, “Born into Despair” puts it back into doomier and gloomier territory, putting the melodies at the forefront, and avoiding that steamrolling heaviness they achieve at times, giving the song a more pensive/reflective tone that allows you to take in where the album has come from.
Fleshspoil absolutely knock it out of the park for their first effort. This is far from run of the mill extreme death metal, but more of a thought-provoking effort that rewards listeners who are willing to take the time to indulge the band on their metallic journey. If you want a thrilling mixture of black, death, doom and beyond, The Beginning of the End thoroughly delivers. It’s devastating, but also keeps you on your toes in the best way.