Review: Fleshvessel – Yearning: Promethean Fates Sealed

Style: Progressive Metal, Death Metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Ne Obliviscaris, Unexpect, prog rock sections in your death metal
Review by: Zach
Country: US-IL
Release date: 28 July, 2023

I had a very long and lovely chat with a family member recently about why I like death metal. I didn’t specify “progressive death metal with influences from black metal, classical, and folk” because I didn’t want to be looked at funny. To the layman, death metal is screaming and banging on drums as hard as you possibly can, but to me, progressive death metal is a beautiful, sprawling genre full of creativity and musical genius. Death metal bands exist who take influence from everything under the musical umbrella, and (sometimes) execute it so well that I barely even realize the song just switched genres right under my nose.

See, I want a journey when I listen to prog-death. I want sprawling songs that are 10+ minutes long, have multiple musical interludes, and I need at least one cello part. I was relatively familiar with Fleshvessel from their one track EP, ‘Bile of Man Reborn’, which I enjoyed a fair amount. But I was far more excited when I saw their debut was coming from I, Voidhanger of all places. What furthered my hype was the track lengths. The shortest “real” track on this album is nearly 11 minutes long, and with the assortment of instruments these four play, I thought I had a match made in heaven.

I do… mostly. This, by all metrics, is an extremely well-done album with a few nitpicks here and there. Fleshvessel swim through four compositional journeys on this album, and three very small interlude tracks. This isn’t exactly the fun-sized endeavor that is Epiphanie’s L’aube, but it’s surprisingly well paced for what it is. The final track being seventeen minutes stretches slightly into overlong territory, but thankfully the album avoids that pitfall for most of its runtime. Of course, this is all helped by the fact that the four members of Fleshvessel may as well be a small orchestra with the amount of musical talent between them.

The album starts with real piano, not keyboard. Three minutes into the first song, it transitions into viola and piano before segueing straight into death metal. While the transitions aren’t the greatest, the sheer variety of instruments on this album is absolutely staggering. That’s not even getting into the three guest musicians who play things I’ve never even heard of. I have no idea what a “finger cymbal” is, nor do I have any idea where to find it on ‘The Void Chamber’, but I’m sure it’s cool.

This is the equivalent of shaking keys in front of a baby’s face for me. I really thought I’d get sick and tired of hearing all these instruments upon relisten, but that’s not the problem I have with this album. Transitional excellence comes with songwriting practice. However, I’m gonna hold those programmed drums over your heads, Fleshvessel. The drums don’t exactly sound programmed per se, but they really aren’t all that present in the mix. This is different from a Dessiderium case where I could only tell by some of the insane fills that they were programmed. That being said, they were written by an actual drummer.. The drums aren’t just there for backdrop, they’re a staple in the mix for a reason. However, seeing as this is their debut, once they get a real drummer (which probably won’t be too far away), they’ll be considered one of the greats.

This was a pleasant surprise for me, if I must be honest. ‘Bile of Man Reborn’ was good, but I never found myself itching to come back to it. Here, we hear a matured Fleshvessel, witha much more refined sound and a hell of a lot more ambition. I’d put them on the same plane of metal existence as Aquilus and Dordeduh, but yet to write an opus like Griseus or Har. With a drummer, and time to iron out songwriting kinks, I can see them releasing something as good as Har a few years down the line. But for now, I’m perfectly happy with this gem of a debut.

Recommended tracks: Winter Came Early, A Stain
You may also like: Aquilus, Dordeduh
Final verdict: 8.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page

Label: I, Voidhanger – Bandcamp | Facebook

Fleshvessel is:
– Gwyn Hoetzer (Flute, woodwinds)
– Sadka Srikoetkhruen (Fretless bass, guitar, lute)
– Alexander Torres (Guitar, door harp, Puerto Rican cuarto, viola, drum programmig)
– Troll Hart (Vocals, piano, keyboard)