adg211288 The Flesh Prevails (2014) is the second full-length album by US death metal act Fallujah. It's been three years since the release of their debut The Harvest Wombs (2011) but they did put out an EP called Nomadic (2013) in that time. They've changed line-up slightly since Nomadic though with the introduction of new guitarist Brian James, who replaces Rob Maramonte.

I have not yet managed to hear The Harvest Wombs but I have heard Nomadic and the three songs that EP contained were more than enough to make me very interested in where Fallujah may take those ideas in a full-length context. The music found on The Flesh Prevails on the surface is well played technical/progressive death metal with deep growling vocals. Catch the album at one of those moments and it may come across as nothing you haven't heard before many times over and you could almost be forgiven for putting it down as something that can be safely ignored.

Almost, as that would be an absolutely dire mistake.

Because that's really just the surface of The Flesh Prevails. Once scratched the more atmospheric details emerge, particularly ambient and post-rock influences, many of them pretty overt in their use. Calling The Flesh Prevails an atmospheric death metal album is in many ways more accurate than technical death metal or even progressive death metal. Whatever you want to call it though, it's abundantly clear that this isn't a normal death metal album of the tech/prog kind by any means. The ideas heard on Nomadic have been further honed and the end result is one of those albums that is instantly remarkable, fresh and a genuine pleasure to stick on for repeated spins.

As I said in my last Fallujah review for Nomadic, as far as extreme metal goes it's usually black metal acts that push the boundaries of their genre more. In recent years though the death metal acts seem to be catching up. We've had several symphonic death metal acts making names for themselves such as MaYaN, Fleshgod Apocalypse and of course Septicflesh and with an album like this one Fallujah look set to more than ever make atmospheric death metal a thing. As far as genre development goes The Flesh Prevails may just be the most important release I've heard this year.

It's certainly one of the best death metal releases as it is, with a near perfect flow across the nine tracks and the various ideas that go into Fallujah's sound. Nothing ever seems forced or unnatural. The atmospheric parts are equally powerful as the most aggressive passages of the music. Instrumental sections such as the ones that open and make up the bulk of final track Chemical Cave are especially a treat. There's no valid reason why The Flesh Prevails should not be counted among the upper echelons of 2014's metal albums.

UMUR "The Flesh Prevails" is the 2nd full-length studio album by US, San Francisco, California based technical/progressive death metal act Fallujah. The album was released through Unique Leader Records in July 2014. "The Harvest Wombs (2011)" debut album was a promising release which was followed up by the even more promising "Nomadic (2013)" EP, so it´s safe to say that Fallujah have started their career in a successful manner.

And that tendency continues on "The Flesh Prevails" which features high class technical/progressive death metal. Fallujah always had a deathcore edge to their music because of the shouting type growling vocals and the start/stop type heavy riffing, but they are predominantly a death metal act. The deathcore elements are also featured on "The Flesh Prevails" though. Other than those elements the music features technical precision drumming and ditto riffing, multible tempo changes, atmospheric sections with clean guitar textures, and semi-jazzy guitar solos, that remind me slighly of "Focus (1993)"-era Cynic.

The band are incredibly well playing and obviously very skilled, which is a great asset when playing this type of music, but on the other hand it´s not like technical playing alone is going to amaze that many listeners in this day and age. Thankfully Fallujah are also pretty skilled composers and the material on "The Flesh Prevails" are well written, brutal, intriguing, and relatively catchy. The whole thing is packed in a clear, detailed, and very powerful sound production, that should please fans of the genre. No old school aestethics here.

Fallujah have taken a step forward with "The Flesh Prevails" and it´s obvious they´ve given the direction of their music a lot of thought. The atmospheric part of their music which is one of the features that makes their music stand out among other artists playing this style of music, is still a major part of their sound, but they balance it off well with brutality and fast technical playing, and end up with a pretty intriguing style. If I have to mention a minor issue it would be that the vocals are pretty generic sounding. They get the job done, but there´s little here that distinguishes them from the growling vocals by other contemporary death metal acts. A more distint sounding and less monotone/one-dimensional vocal style would really have done the trick and lifted the quality of "The Flesh Prevails" to an even higher level, but as it is a 4 star (80%) rating is still deserved.