I had been a fan of more technical music since I could remember, but the first time I ran into Fleshgod Apocalypse was because of their music video for The Violation. As I have become a pretty big fan since then I'm going to do a review for each of the 3 CDs I've had the luxury of hearing. Mafia is their 5 song EP and packs a lot of musicality into a fairly short effort.
Through Our Scars: Brutal intro with a quick violin section and surprisingly audible bass over buzz saw riffs. Moves into a chuggy riff which eventually gains vocals that are of a fairly deep and somewhat raspy tone. Drumming keeps up its intensity. Bass remains audible despite everything. Interesting vocal shifts including what sounds like them echoing themselves. Moves into a neoclassical section with beautiful sweeps and soaring clean vocals over the same powerful drum beats. After that back to a chuggy section for a bit, followed by a very melodic bridge with no vocals at all, its one of my favorite portions of the song. I really appreciate the mixing here where each part of the music is audible at all points in time and you never have the chance to forget about any of it. That goes back into another clean melodic solo which is just wonderful and builds a tremendous amount of tension into another heavy riff. The neoclassical sweeping returns again with the same soaring vocals and its made to fit perfectly in the mood of the song. That continues on into another chuggy riff as the vocals exit and the outro finishes with the same ferocity of the beginning of the song. Easy 4.5/5, really showcases their classical influence and adeptness of death metal as well.
Abyssal: Starts off with a really heavy set of riffing from the instruments but a very pleasant overriding melody. Goes into the vocals with very fast guitar riffing and drumming evident like before. The chorus is one of my favorite parts of the song, it just feels really aurally pleasing. The buzzsaw guitars continue on into more vocals which are back into the repeated chorus part. The mixing is still amazing in this, though I miss a little of the audible bass from before. The layered vocals are great too. It moves into a break with a very nice guitar part and some dramatic drumming with the vocals removed. A spoken word section begins over this as the music slowly builds tension and gains steam. This leads into a beautiful sweep section with the layered growly and raspy vocals over each other. That is followed by a slow melodic riff that is very pleasant over top of the fast and relentless drumming. The vocals start again with a very powerful riff with some good usage of pinch harmonics. Goes into an interesting section with a different guitar section and what almost sounds like a call and answer between the vocal types. A stop briefly stays the assault before it blasts back into the groove of it. The song seems to get more vocal oriented as they get stronger in the mix, and then it moves into a melodic guitar riff over the always constant frenetic flurry of drumming. This truly is a band that knows how to combine brutality and melody in a way that is quite memorable. The outro loses the driving forces in the background giving way to a peaceful classical section for the end of the song. 5/5
Conspiracy of Silence: A very intense intro with significant vocal strain leads into the fastest riff I've heard from this band, there's a bit of a lead and a stop leading into the vocal section. They continue with the mid range growl and some call answer sections. The rhythm section remains as consistent as ever, driving the song along. A beautiful neoclassical section arrives in the middle of everything and its clearly visible despite the amount of notes going on behind it, the mixing is fantastic. That leads into more blasting and choice pinch harmonics and the return of the vocals. The leady riff from before is followed by another section of frenetic drumming with the presence of a nice slower melodic guitar line that's completely audible. It proceeds into a more solo section with some very nice notes. I'd say this is my favorite portion of this song. That goes into a break with clean vocals over clean guitar and keeping the intense drum beat and bass underneath all of it. That melodic section gains the harsh vocals from earlier which seem even deeper and more forceful than ever. The tension is broke and led back into another buzzsaw riff with some strong vocal action over it. Neoclassical returns and they continue their practice of putting incredible musicianship in the middle of the song and making every portion remain listenable. The outro is a display of the drums as the vocals give a memorable performance there too. 4.5/5
Blinded By Fear: At the Gates cover, its a song I was already really fond of so I wondered what this band would do to it. Intro is kept pretty constant from the original with their own personality added. The drumming seems more intense, but the guitar does a great job of echoing the inspiration. It just seems heavier and that suits the band fine. The vocals are the continuing midrange growls from the rest of the music, but they sound just fine and the vocals are still understandable like in the original version. The more melodic break is given great treatment and the mixing of this album remains one of my favorites as every level is there clearly. Everything sounds so clean and brutal its a wonderful cover. Audible bass even makes its presence known near the end of the song. 4/5
Mafia: I wouldn't be as huge a fan of this band if I couldn't also enjoy the classical sections in addition to the death metal influence. This is a 3 minute piano outro to the album that is simply divine and demonstrates the bands ability to write music in more than one mode. I simply adore this and even though its not my favorite song of the album it'll be the highest rated because there is nothing I can look at and say it needs more of this or that for. 5/5
Overall 4.6/5 a great listen and one I would definitely recommend to anyone interested in taking a leap into technical death metal or even just death metal but doesn't want to lose much of a sense of melody. They do this genre different than a lot of bands out there, but its fantastic the result.
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