Fleshcrawl vs. Skinned Alive – Tales of Flesh and Skin

Brutal Art Records from Germany are one of my favourite independent records labels, releasing high quality death and black metal vinyl EPs from a number of established and up and coming bands.

Their latest split EP is a little different, as it’s being released as a digipack CD with booklet.  And because this is on CD, instead of the usual four tracks, we get eight!I love the vinyl EPs that Brutal Art Records release, but it’s great to see them expanding and offering music on CD too – hopefully this will be the first of many such releases!

The first four tracks are by Fleshcrawl.  These guys have been together since 1987, and during the time since then have released 8 full-length albums of impressive death metal.  The experience shows, because their tracks on offer here are incredibly well done, achieving the perfect balance between old-school death metal and more modern melodic elements.  The guitar work is amazing – with some intricate fret work and riffs with massive hooks -and the vocals sound like someone gargling gravel.  It’s fantastic stuff, and on the basis of these tracks, I will be checking out Fleshcrawl‘s back catalogue!

Tracks five to eight are by Skinned Alive – the one-man project of Ferli Thielmann, guitarist and vocalist from Miseo (whose debut album, ‘Lunatic Confessions‘ was one of my top albums of 2014).  All four of these tracks are perfect examples of how to do old school death metal, with chugging guitars, catchy riffs, pounding drums, and raw vocals that compliment the music perfectly.  The sound is similar to Miseo, but subtly different enough to let you know this is a different band.  I’m really impressed with these fours tracks and will definitely be keeping an eye out for any future releases by Skinned Alive !

This is another impressive release from Brutal Art Records – so help support this independent label and get yourself a copy of this before it sells out – check out the links below !

Score: 9 out of 10

EP INFO

Tracklist
1. Fleshcrawl – Return of the Flesh
2. Fleshcrawl – Reign Again
3. Fleshcrawl – Black Souls
4. Fleshcrawl – Kingdom of Skulls
5. Skinned Alive – The Beauty and the Pest
6. Skinned Alive – LingChi
7. Skinned Alive – Lifeless Flesh Released
8. Skinned Alive – Stroked With an Axe

Record Label
Brutal Art Records

Release Date
January 2016

Links
Brutal Art Records
Fleshcrawl Facebook Page
Skinned Alive Facebook Page