Fleshgod Apocalypse - Oracles

(30 Jun 2011)

Wow... This album is sort of like finding out Santa doesn't exist, only three times worse. It's kind of heartbreaking to realize simultaneously that three things are not what they seem. First, it's my beloved Italian metal scene. Second, it's my beloved Candlelight. Third, it's my semi-beloved Willowtip. I thought that if one were to join the three, the result would be both original and professional. Sadly, this is possibly the most playing-safest Death Metal album I've ever heard, something to use as reference for studying the gimmicks and clichés of later noughties DM.

Fleshgod Apocalypse seem to have a pretty defined style, in which they mix influences of Suffocation, The Black Dahlia Murder and Necrophagist with some classical leanings, meanwhile succeeding in removing anything that made any of the former actually worth listening. The very deathcore sounding arppeggioed riffs and the "We're fucking tr00, no seriously" attitude become very annoying after the third track, and once they get to the classical lead with an "evilll" scale on "Requiem in Si Minore", my teeth begin to hurt from grinding so much. Even the song structures sound toned down so you can take in everything and headbang along to the fabricated songs. Despite being the best parts of the album, the classical interludes seem like they've merely been added to further cement the "No really, we're tr00" statement.

Don't get me wrong, I like the occasional "headbanging for the sake of headbanging" track as much as the other guy, and when employed well, it's really effective. Some riffs in some of the tracks are really catchy and well-executed, if not particularly creative. But as a whole this is just unmemorable in every single way. It has no creativity, no atmosphere, no actual texture and no fun at all. As a final insult, the album is plagued with one of the most piercing-in-a-bad-way guitar tones, drums that have stolen all the reverb from everything else in the record and possibly the most standard-sounding vocalist I've ever heard.

Oracles sounds like some musicians saw how poppy and well-established Death Metal acts are getting lauded and revered by the kids and seeing this decided to get a piece of that cake, by making the loudest, most poppiest, most easiest Technical Death Metal they could think of. If that was what they were trying to do, have they succeeded? Definitely. They even got signed to Nuclear Blast as proof of their success. On the other hand, I probably like St. Anger more than this.


Standout tracks:

Sophistic Demise
intro for "Embodied Deception"