Brutal Death Metal, brutal, not just Death Metal... brutal but with humor, it says in some of their press garb, lyrically anyway... lol... well... that's nice then. This is FLESHDOLL's 3^rd release since 2005, which began with ("W.O.A.R.G") 2005, "Animal Factory" 2010 and land us in 2013 (yes, yes I know, I'm late!!), ok 2014... with "Feeding The Pigs".

"Feeding The Pigs" opens the album and Brutal it surely is and Death it is indeed, without compromise...fast with some frantic guitar work, made me laugh out loud too but not sure if it was the humor or just the shock of its blistering attack! Either way a great start and ends chugging you into oblivion. A bouncing groove of "Collateral Murder" throws you over a hedge as it whips up into another frantic thrash meets blast beat tempo barrage. Some real nice riffage here, using all that has gone before as their template and with a finesse of execution. You see yet again we have a French band, from Toulouse actually, so you know that they know their craft and how to deliver... great lead work too right here.

"A Feast For The Rats", has to be political doesn't it... Fuck the government, they should all be fed to the rats? No, post apocalypse survival... ah that's a shame but... another total all-out assault... just gloriously blistering in delivery. The drumming in particular, handled by Samuel Santiago (ex-GOROD) is so precise and fucking crisp the band feels like they are slicing meat not just playing..! And so comes "The Wolf" which opens with what sounds like a wolf's growl but no, that is actually, Bastich and what a growl he has. ''Enslavement Is The Key of Happiness'' the lyric tells us indeed... ''The Blinder The Safer'', for sure it's clear they talk of sheep... so don't be one... "Dead Monochrome", well the world was nicer in black and white somehow wasn't it? Simpler times for sure. But here the word if get out of your dead monochrome life...you are missing the glorious colors that abound all around you, come on don't give in, fight always fight. Cool groove here and I lick the offbeat counter riff... again some very cool guitar work executed with a severity and quality. "The Hollow Men" is an instrumental and throws some cool shapes. Normally this could be just yanking off but these guys keep a structure while also allowing the performances to come through...it's more atmosphere than some kind of egotistical hogwash, short but sweet. I would have left it back in the studio personally as it doesn't seem to go anywhere in particular and as such I see no reason to be here but... it certainly doesn't offend so, why fucking not. "The Shadow Of A Man" is a soul destroyed by pain, he hasn't had the best time. In fact he's had enough of the lies and bullshit and trying to fight it... he'd be quite happy to have done with it all. It pushes along with angry sentiment until a more mid temp and much darker conclusion begins to loom. And the final twist he seeks of a rope, they deliver to us sonically and manage to convey the lyric of this man in a perfect cloud of gloom.

And on to, "Ecstatic Random Carnage" oh yes... I fucking hope so... Actually, put this track on and turn on the world news channel without sound up...but crank this motherfucker instead. You'll get that old, watching "The Wizard Of Oz" while listening to "Dark Sid Of The Moon" by PINK FLOYD. Actually, anyone who has done that knows it all bollox but...with "Ecstatic Random Carnage" and the world new channel, you'll get a sense of the chaos they speak about and that is our world... madness... fucking madness. Ok now "King of Patusan", who, what, or where is Patusan? Anyone? Well it is a fictional country. Joseph Conrad wrote the novel where it features, somewhere in the South Seas. It talks of the character Jim, who arrives to the place and sets a new life to forget his past among the natives... I like the images the mind creates from the novel and the 'pretend' country has appeared in some movies also, so the descriptive nature in the novel is quite stimulating as you can tell but does FLESHDOLL manage to convey it in a song? Especially as they are Brutal / Death Metal? Well, yes because they focus on the angst of Jim, his sense of wonderment, his foreboding feelings. Do they make it work? Yes, they do a good job. Now though as sad as it is, we have to close and so FLESHDOLL, leave us to the final track, "North Sentinel Island"... and up it jumps and smack, right in the nose.. take that fucker... but wait. That is not all there is... a historical tale, North Sentinel Island is in the bay of Bengal. The natives who are small in number, reject any contact with the outside world and it's modern civilization, so it's a menacing tale of visitors who come to take and the Islander, who are the sentinels of their world. The track moves into atmospheric complexity from all bout brutality and has some nice guitar touches. And it's a great ending to a cool piece of work. Good band Good album... thanks for the fun.