Thy Flesh Consumed – “Unrepentant”

Thy Flesh Consumed are one of those bands that death metal fans just love to love. Their music is uncompromisingly brutal and merciless, their ethos is unapologetically blasphemous, and they’re just underground enough that you feel really savvy to know about them.

Unrepentant is TFL’s fourth full-length release, and the songwriting it features is demonstrative of a band that knows how to work together. The songs are cohesive and have a surrounding quality that really promotes close attention and involvement during a listening session.

As all good brutal death metal bands do, Thy Flesh Consumed know how to make jaws drop with technicality and song complexity. However, they frequently push it a step further into a realm that almost crosses with black metal as the hurricane-force chaos of the parts becomes atmospheric rather than linear and structured. This owes mostly to the organic, old school production; this same album recorded with drum replacement, digital editing, and layers of polishing effects would lose most of what makes it special.

Unrepentant also stands out as having some of the best-written lyrics I’ve read this year. Lines such as “ Fallacious ritual obedience / Compliance in the absence of evidence” are not only metal as a bull’s nose ring, but they encourage thought, rebellion, and self-awareness where many death metal bands just string together gory and offensive nonsense.

Even if you’re a bought-and-sold flag waver for the new school of digi-polished whatever-core, give Thy Flesh Consumed a chance. Without bands like them we might forget why we all started wearing black in the first place.  [ END ]

Track Listing:

01. Siege Engine Of Unreligion
02. The Disciplined Scorn
03. Blood Drenched Creation
04. The Demolition Of Thought
05. Ordinance Subservience
06. Devout Heathen
07. Hasten The Apocalypse
08. Sacrilege And Clarity
09. Thralldom Of The Crowning Mania

Run Time: 41:37
Release Date: 11.10.2009