UMUR "Bloodsoul" is the 3rd full-length studio album by German death metal act Fleshcrawl. The album was released through Black Mark Production in June 1996. It´s the successor to "Impurity" from 1994 and features one lineup change since the predecessor, as bassist Markus Amann has left the band. He hasn´t been replaced here, and guitarist Mike Hanus therefore handles the bass in addition to playing guitar.

Stylistically the material on "Bloodsoul" pretty much continues down the same old school death metal path as the material on "Impurity (1994)". It´s predominantly mid- to fast paced death metal which has many similarities to the output of some early 90s Swedish death metal artists. I´d especially mention Dismember as a reference. Fleshcrawl is a relatively well playing act and lead vocalist Alex Pretzer has a decent growling vocal delivery, but overall there is little out of the ordinary for the genre featured on "Bloodsoul".

The material is pretty standard for the genre, and very few tracks stand out or are memorable beyond listening to the album. The sound production is raw and powerful, and suits the material well, but again it´s nothing out of the ordinary, and upon conclusion "Bloodsoul" comes off as a very standard old school death metal album. It´s solid and enjoyable while it plays, but that´s about it. It´s a bit of a shame that Fleshcrawl weren´t able to follow up the relatively high quality of their debut album "Descend Into the Absurd (1992)", but as "Bloodsoul" is now the second release after the promising debut featuring a lower quality level and very little in ways of a personal sound, it´s beginning to look like a tendency and an unfortunate development of sound. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.